Hemoglobine
by She Who Burninates
Summary: Both of them need blood, but for very different reasons. Self-fic, non Mary Sue-ish, non-slashy, shitty summary.
1. Chapter 1

**Hemoglobine**

A tall man, clothes in dark colours and black steel-tipped boots, sat in his kitchen, cleaning his knives. It might have looked normal, just a man washing the kitchen knives, if it weren't for the red bodily fluid colouring the dish water. The man was humming _The 1812 Ouverture_. Those who knew him called him Johnny, to those who didn't he was known as 'that skinny-ass faggot', 'that wacky-looking guy', and 'goth-kinda weirdo', and lots of other, more or less unpleasant things. Johnny carefully dried each knife, putting much thought in the tiny patterns the drying-cloth created on the wet metal. Suddenly, a tortured scream echoed through the house.

"Shit. The doorbell", Johnny muttered as he got up to open the door. The horrid screams filled the house once again, followed by a childish giggle.

"Yes? Who are you and why the hell are you here?" It was a habit of Johnnny's to shout before even looking at the person who had rung the doorbell. Why bother? People have never been much to look at anyway... He realized that a young girl stood before him, and he opened the door a tiny bit more, revealing slightly more of his face than his left eye.

"Sir, my name is Gengi and I don't believe in Hell. Or Heaven, for the matter. So don't try any theological cursewords with me, it won't work." The girl was around twelve, maybe thirteen, wore oval-shaped glasses, a red backpack, a black leather jacket and buckled boots, everything tattered and quite weird-looking on such a young child.

"Well, forget about the hell-thing, then. What was so immensely funny that you had to _laugh _at it? Was it, perhaps, my house?" Johnny made a bold gesture at his run-down house. "Was it my personal appearance? Wait, you laughed before I opened the door, so forget that one...Was it the fact that my house's number is 777? What? _Tell me!_"

"Er... I'm sorry if I offended you, sir, but I just laughed at your doorbell. I find it amusing. Some say I have a twisted sense of humour, but actually, it's kinda refreshing to hear a scream instead of the usual ding-a-ling."

"Okay, so the reason you came here was to laugh at my doorbell?" Johnny was getting a bit annoyed at the girl, but also curious.

"No, sir, I came here to ask if you might have a spare room for me to use. I'm dead broke, but I could do the cleaning or something to pay back. But, judging from the nature of our conversation, you don't have a spare room, or you don't want to give it to an obnoxious kid like me. Which one is it?"

"Oh. So you're homeless, then?" Johnny, the self-declared king of witty comments, was actually unprepared for the biting cynism in her reply. That's why he only was able to utter these two horribly lame sentences (_I'm not a lazy writer. Noooo, not at all... Hee hee_).

"Yes, I guess you could say so." Gengi smirked.

"Well, if you actually are a homeless kid and not a horrid being from beyond our plane of existance, I might actually let you inside my house. But first, one more question: Why in h- I mean why on Earth, sorry, did you choose my house? I mean, there are plenty of houses in this neighbourhood that could house a young girl, most of them more appropriate than this."

"I guess you might think so, but actually, this house fits me to a T. If you don't mind, sir, I think I would fit in more in a rather strange house than in a normal house, since I'm not what people tend to think of as normal. Also, the people in all the other houses in this block have either made the sign of the cross upon he sight of me, shouted 'Trailer trash!' or slammed the door in my face."

"Well, pardon my rudeness. I actually haven't told you my name, which is Johnny", he said in a spooky Dracula-like voice. "Do come in."

"Perhaps... Perhaps not", Gengi replied, in a uncannily exact imitation of Bela Lugosi, complete with the accent and the hand gestures.

"What?! Make up your mind, goddammit, I'm not inviting people to my house for nothing", Johnny snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Johnny. I thought you liked Dracula, so I quoted Bela."

"I do, but quit fooling around and get inside." Johnny slammed the front door open in a very violent fashion, causing the doorknob to make a crater in the wall and then bounce back shut again. "Quick! People aren't allowed to see the insides of this house unless I want them to!" He dragged her inside, just milliseconds before the slamming door would have cut of her hand. "Sorry about the door, it has a tendency for cutting off hands when slamming", Johnny explained, an apologetic frown across his face that looked horribly misplaced.

"Wait. Can I just start living here or are you going to send me on some impossible quest, like 'Disembowel three chickens and then paint The Mona Lisa with their blood and organs', or 'Find me a shrubbery'?"

"No, but that chicken thing was a great idea, maybe something to use the next time I invite a friend over", Johnny said, a big grin spread across his face, the sort of grin that looked more like "I'mma-gonna-kill-ya" than the "Let's-drink-tea-and-eat-muffins"-grin most people used.

"Aren't you gonna comment about my weird imagination or something? Most people do that", Gengi said, with a strange little smirk-frowning. (_Yes. Very strange. Very strange indeed..._)She slumped onto the springy couch, throwing her backpack on the floor before thinking better of it. _**Ka-thud-krrink!** _The landing backpack sounded like somebody throwing three dictionaries against the wall and a teacup dropped on the floor in horror, all mixed together.

"Fuck! What the hell was I... Jävla skithelvete! How the fuck could I ever..?" Gengi ran to her backpack, nervously skimming it through to check that nothing was broken. To Johnny's surprise, a squeal of joy escaped her. "Fuck yeah! They're still here! They survived it! Yeah!" Gengi triumphantly held up a bundle of CDs, one with the cover of a shirtless man holding a vinyl record in front of his face.

"Aren't you gonna explain where a young girl like you learnt such horrid language? And what's so precious about those discs?" Johnny asked, his face alternating between disgust, fascination and curiosity.

"They're Bauhaus discs", Gengi exclaimed, awe on her face as she looked at the bundle of discs. "If you don't know what Bauhaus is, I'm afraid that I have to leave immediatly. People without knowledge of good music annoy me to the point of self-ignition."

"Don't be silly, of course I know what Bauhaus is. I'm not completely unaware about the world, although somtimes, I wish I was..." Johnny's expression became rather strange, depressed but yet filled with wisdom.

They sat like that for a while, Johnny on a kitchen chair, Gengi in the couch, dead quiet both of them. There was no need to say anything. Melancholy and sadness filled the room like a wet blanket, pressing over everything, threatening to suffocate them.

Suddenly, Gengi broke the silence.

"Um, Johnny... Where's my room?"

"Oh... Your room? Follow me", Johnny said. He lead her through a long corridor. Left, right, straight forward, right... There were many doors in the corridor, and they all looked the same. "Here we are. This is the spare room, enjoy." He opened a red door in a rather dramatic fashion. It was a rather small room, a cast-iron bed in one corner and an old bookshelf, filled with old pocket books the whole furnishing. "Remember, the blue door's to the living room. Call out if you need anything." With that, he left the room and left Gengi with her own thoughts.

* * *

_Johnny. Have you grown compassionate? Why did you take that homeless girl into your house? I mean, you used to _hate _hobos before. What's happened?_

Johnny smiled a little at the familliar voice in his head. Nailbunny.

"Oh, hi, Nailbunny. I thought you disappeared with the Doughboys." It was a rather casual conversation between a man and his dead rabbit.

_No, Nny. I didn't. It was Reverend M.E.A.T. who forced me to be quiet. But now that both the Doughboys and the Reverend's gone, I can finally speak without their interruptions. So, what's the deal with the girl?_

"I don't know why I picked her up. She just seemed... reasonable, a bit like Squee. And she... I don't know, Nailbunny, I don't know. Eveything's still just as strange as it was when I came back from my vacation." Johnny sighed.

_Oh, it feels so good to talk to you again. Actually, I've missed you. But tell me one thing: Are you going to kill her?_

"Well, I'm not sure. I mean, she's just a kid and I don't kill kids. Besides, does The Thing Beyond The Wall still need blood? Did it disappear or something when I was away?"

_You know I cannot answer that, Nny. I'm not connected to it at all, not like your other voices. It might be there, but it might just as well be gone. _Nailbunny made a sad little sound and then continued, _I hope it's dead! That... thing's been controlling you for too long, Nny! May it die of starvation!_

"Nailbunny, are you OK? I mean, it's not very much like you to sound so angry. I think that--" Their conversation was interrupted by a scream, coming from the corridor.

_"AARRGGHH!!! I'm trying so hard, but you... Cursed be this... this disease! I curse this... addiction! LEAVE ME ALONE!"_

Johnny rushed to Gengi's room, wanting to know what was wrong with her. He found her curled up to a ball, hiding under the blanket. She was trembling, and Johnny carefully lifted the blanket to see her face.

"Gengi? Is something wrong? I might not be able to help you, but please, tell me what's bothering you", he said in a gentle tone, very much unlike the normal way he speaked.

She turned her face up and looked into his worried eyes.

"You see, the thing is... I have a disease", she said, her voice hoarse.

"Oh, a disease. What disease is it?"

"It makes me... _need_ a thing, and if I can't get it, I start to feel horrible. Everything starts to ache. Light, sound, everything hurts me. And I..."

"Wait. Please, don't tell me you're a chem-head. I have no drugs. If you want dope, you're gonna buy it yourself. Got it?"

"I'm... not addicted to drugs. But I know that you have _my_ drug, the thing I need. I... Shit, am I going insane?"

"I don't know. Maybe you are. What exactly do you need? If it's here, I'll bring it to you." He carefully folded the blanked away and gasped at what he saw. There were cuts all over her body. Some was healed, some was still bleeding, all of them running down her legs and arms.

"Who... Who did this to you!? I'm gonna kill that asshole, kids shouldn't have to... That fucker's gonna die!" He was infuriated. What sick bastard would cut up a young girl like this?

"I... I did it myself. I was so... so thirsty, but it didn't solve a thing. I _had_ to do it, or I would have died."

"What?! You cut yourself? But... Why?" Suddenly, the possible truth hit him right in the face. "Oooh, shit! Was it a styrofoam figure who made you do it? One named Mr. Eff? That asshole... So this is what he's been up to? Making kids kill themselves?"

"Um... No. I did it for the... Thirst. I needed it very badly, so I cut myself and drank it. Oh, please, Johnny, turn the lights off! It hurts..." Johnny obeyed without questions and turned off the lights in the room.

"Now, tell me. What is it that you need?" Johnny was very confused. What was the matter with this girl?

"Blood." A single whisper escaped her mouth, and she began to breathe much faster.

"Blood? You need blood? But why?"

"I-I don't k-know", she sobbed. "I just n-need it..."

"Nailbunny! Are those buckets of blood I used to paint The Wall with still fresh?"

_Wait a minute, I'm checking... No. One of them is completely clotted, the other one has a nasty surface of... some icky, darkish goo on top. There are some whitish spots in it, too..._

"Wait here, Gengi, I'm gonna get you something to make you better." With that, he ran off, leaving Gengi confused with his conversation with an unheard voice.

"Nailbunny, are you OK with this? I mean, it's for a good sake..."

_Sure, go nuts. The smiley knives are in the bookshelf, on top of _The Pit and the Pendulum.

"Why the hell did I put the knifes in a _bookshelf? _There are lots of better places to put things...", he muttered as he skimmed through the bookshelf in search of his beloved knives. Eventually, he found the knives. "Nailbunny, did you clean out the basement while I was on vacation?"

_No, I didn't. _

"That's great, thanks", Johnny called out as he skipped down the stairs to his basement, knives in hands, whistling _The Moonlight Sonata_. He kicked open the door to a familliar room, a room where he'd spent a lot of time before. Before his vacation. Although he didn't want to admit it, he enjoyed this part of it. He enjoyed all of it. The room was filled with people. _Like a fore_st, he thought to himself. _A forest of scum. _People everywhere, hanging upside-down from the ceiling, all dressed up in straightjackets.

"Shit! You again! If I weren't hanging from the ceiling and wearing this straight-jacket, I'd beat ya blue and green before ya even had the chance to blink! I'd kill ya! You'd DIE!!" The angry yell reached Johnny's ears, making him spin around to face the source of the sound.

"Oooh, a cocky one. This'll be fun", Johnny said, a grin spreading across his face. The man who'd yelled at him was bald, and with three face-piercings. Johnny untied the knots at the rope and unlocked the chains holding him, the result being that the man fell onto the floor. "OK", Johnny said, "I don't really remember what you did to me, but you deserve to be here. Anyway, what's your name?"

The bald man interrupted his string of profanities to raise one eyebrow and look at Johnny, then mumble "Kevin Haroldson", and continued cursing Johnny with words involving "fag", "your mom", and "fucker".

"Shut up. I don't need to hear your goddamn cursing all the time. Do you have a burning need to fill out the blanks in your speech where your brain shuts down?" Johnny glowered at the man. Kevin stopped talking immediatly. "Now, it's time for some _fun_. You _like_ having fun, don't you?" Johnny begun strapping the man in one of the intricate torture devices scattered inside his basement.

"Wait, I forgot something. A bottle... Yeah, that's right. A bottle." He then chained the man to the ceiling again and ran up the stairs to the kitchen.

_Why the kitchen, Nny?_ Nailbunny sounded mildly interested in Johnny's opinion on the subject.

"Because that's the most likely place to find a bottle", Johnny replied.

_Johnny, you know you have a habit for leaving things lying around..._

"Yes, but that doesn't exclude the possibility that it's in the kitchen. It only adds the alternative that it might not be there."

_Whatever. _A mild irritation managed to sneak into Nailbunny's voice.

Johnny rummaged through his kitchen, not finding any bottles. _Why the fuck isn't there _any _bottles in this whole goddamn kitchen?! _At last, he found one. A bottle of Sugary Mind Control soda, long since emptied.

"All right, this'll do", he mumbled as he ripped off the label.

_Wait, Nny. Don't you know how many icky, little crawling bacteria that could live and breed in a single drop of blood? _

"Oh, you're right, blood, like all bodily fluids, is prone to carry diseases. But what should I do about it? I mean, I don't wanna poison her, but it's not like I have an endless supply of medicines for my... harvest..." Johnny stopped, lost in thoughts. "Wait. Wouldn't Bactine rid them of... Wait, forget it."

_I suggest you take a notebook and start writing down their blood diseases and such. Don't you remember that Discovery show about mixing blood? _

"Hmm... Yeah, I think so. Was that the one where those Satanist kids who drank each other's blood died horribly?"

_Yeah, I guess so. Now, take a notebook and a pen and do your work!_

"OK." Johnny skipped down the stairs, enjoying what would come. He stepped into the straight-jacket forest, choosing Kevin Haroldson again, and he strapped him in a nice little electrocutioning machine.

"All right, it's you again. Now, before you die, I'd like you to answer some questions."

"What? Fuck, I'm not gonna answer some fucking questions, faggot!" It was something very unwise to say. Unforynately, Kevin didn't know this. A glinter of metal, then a knife pressed against his neck.

"Oh, _yes_, you are. You _are_ gonna answer these questions, because I'll rip out your vocal chord if you don't." A manical gleam was now visible in Johnnys eyes. "First question: What blood type do you have?"

"Eeeeh... A , I think..."

"Okiedokie", Johnny said and jotted it down in his notebook. "Any diseases in your blood?"

"What? How the fuck am I supposed to know?!"

"You _do_ have a brain, right?" Johnny bended forward and tapped Kevin's forehead. "Use it. If you don't suffer from amnesia, which I highly doubt, you should be able to remember."

"Um... Er... Hepi-hepa-something B, I think."

"Mm-hmm." Johnny wrote _Hepa-shit B_ in the notebook. "Anything else?"

"Uh... No, I don't think so..."

"Good", Johnny said and pushed the little red button. And we all know what a little red button means... Horrid screams escaped from the man, the sort of screams you scream when you have 30 000 volt ran through your body. Suddenly, he went limp.

"Next one!" Johnny looked at the forest of people. "Hmm... I'll pick... you." He pointed at a woman, her mascara running down her forehead. Johnny unlocked the chains and undid the knots holding her up. Then, he put her in another machine, this one combining a guillotine with an iron maiden.

"What's your bloodgroup?"

"I-it's AB-..." The woman wimpered, tears trickling down her cheeks. "Please, p-please don't kill me. I b-beg you! I'll be n-nice..."'

"I'm sorry, but making your boyfriend carve 'Freak' all over my car with his key weren't so very nice. Did you know how much it cost me to fix it? Of course, you and your goddamn boyfriend have no fucking empathy, so you can't care. I will kill you. If you answer these questions honestly, your death might be less painful." Johnny smirked, then continued. "Okay, any blood diseases?"

"N-no, the doctor said that my test was f-fine..."

"Isn't that great?" A huge grin cleaved his face, and he cut her neck artery open. Blood flowed out, like some horrible fountain. He collected the blood in the bottle, and then pressed the red button.

"Bye-bye, carver-idiot!" With that, he skipped up the stairs, humming _The Fifth Symphony_. Johnny was back in his right element: killing people. Not killing to feed an abomination from another dimension, just to make a little girl better. That wasn't at all related to slavery. Not at all... Or was it? He didn't know. All he knew was that this girl was a bit like Squee; weird, interesting to talk to, and small. As Johnny walked into the corridor, he heard a sound of something horribly wrong. It was the sound of an immense wish to hurt, to dismember, to behead, to disembowel, and yet, these growls and snarls came from _a little girl_. Gengi. Johnny ran through the corridor. What the fuck was she doing, tearing the walls down?

He kicked the door oped, and prepared for walls covered with blood, tentacled abominations with too many eyes covering the floor, one million dead mice, arranged to form patterns on the floor, _anything_.

He wasn't prepared for the sight of Gengi sitting on the floor, a strange gleam in her eyes, drawing in a sketchbook like the fate of the world depended on it.

"Er... Gengi?"

"What?" she muttered, without even looking up from her sketchbook.

"I have your blood", Johnny exclaimed and held out the bottle.

"Blood? You have blood?" She _eradiated _the deepest sceptism ever seen on the face of he earth. "Gimme!" She stretched out and grabbed the bottle, and drank from it. As soon as the blood flowed into her mouth, a deep ecstacy seemed to fill her. She closed her eyes in pleasure, drinking the scarlet liquid as if it was the richest and deepest wine ever to be made. Johnny couldn't do anything else but watch. It didn't look like anything he'd ever seen before ...or did it?

Author's notes: I hope you enjoy this story. Please, be gentle with your reviews since English isn't my native language.

Johnny C is the property of Jhonen Vasquez, not me. Gengi belongs to me, since she _is_ me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hemoglobine**

**-Chapter two**

The bottle was suddenly emptied, and Gengi looked up at Johnny, blood stains around her mouth.

"Johnny, are you an angel?"

"No, I guess that I'm the polar opposite of an angel."

"I don't think so. I mean, you saved my life. I... I don't know how to thank you..."

"Well, how could you be near death?"

"Er... This is gonna sound extremely schizo, but listen anyway. There's like I have an... animal inside of me. A beast, a bloodthirsty monster. And if I let that monster out, people will die. When I don't get blood, the monster gets stronger, and I weaker. But now, since you gave me blood, I'm all right." She paused, a strange gleam in her eyes. "Wait, how do I know you won't blab? How do I know this isn't some fucked-up plot to kill me or... rape me or something? I mean, c'mon, you're too good to be real. Reality never _ever _works this smoothly. This's probably just a dream, and I'll wake up thirstier than ever."

Johnny was rather offended by her rant.

"Of course this is real. I'm real, you're real, the fucking_ blood_ is real... This isn't the Matrix!"

"Oh shit", Gengi exclaimed and went pale. "Oh my god, Johnny, how did you get the blood? C'mon, please don't say that you've cut yourself! That... that's awfully dangerous..."

"Nope, if I'd cut myself, I'd be dead by now. So scratch that one."

"Well, how did you get the blood, then?" Gengi cocked her head in a fashion that made her look like an owl.

"I'd rather not get into that", Johnny replied. "What are you drawing?"

"Oh, nothing special. Here." She gave him the sketchbook and Johnny raised one eyebrow when he saw her drawings. It was violence in many forms. A woman kneeling under a crucified man, waiting for his blood to pour into her mouth. A boy, slitting his wrists. A girl, stabbing someone in the chest with a knife.

"Why all the violence? Shouldn't kids draw happy, cutesy stuff?"

"Well, this crap keeps my mind of the blood. And I'm not, by any standards, a normal kid." Gengi smirked, and tried to get up from her seiza (Japanese-style sitting). "Oops! My legs are stuck! Ow... OW! The've fallen asleep! Ouch!" She tried to get her legs working again, hobbling around with her knees locked. "Oouuchh!" Finally, her legs started behaving properly and she was able to walk again. Johnny just smiled at the whole situation.

"Since your legs aren't shortcircuited anymore, we could walk to the living room and talk. If you're gonna live here, there are some things that you need to know."

"And... those things are easier to tell in the living room?" Gengi asked, loking very sceptical.

"Yes, actually they do. So come along!" Johnny was already walking towards the door.

"Oh, everything for the sake of drama..." Gengi murmured.

"What?" Johnny spun around at inhuman speed.

"Er... Nothing", Gengi said wih a insidious smirk. She then walked besides Johnny through the long corridor, saying nothing at all. Granted, Johnny was also completely silent, so her point or joke or whatever was wasted. After what seemed like an endless walk, they reached their destination: the living room. Johnny jumped onto the couch, and Gengi sat down in a very proper manner, remembering how her CD's were almost sent into oblivion.

"All righty, tell me The Rules That Must Be Followed or whatever they're called."

"Okay. You see, these are the rules. Don't make fun of me because of the way I look, and..."

"Wait, somebody made fun of your looks? That person must be completely out of his or her mind. You look great!" Gengi stopped, and started blushing when she realized what she just had said.

"Thank you, but there isn't just one single person who's made fun of my looks, it's many. Nearly all of them, judgemetal little lice who did nothing for anyone but themselves. They truly deserved it. People shouldn't do such things and remain unpunished. They all deserved it. All of them, just like that. Gone. The world would be better without those fuckers, and..." Johnny stopped, realizing that Gengi still listened to him. The insane gleam in his eyes faded, and he continued with a lame "... By the way, stay out of the basement. And please, don't break anything. This place is broken enough as it is. Here's a very important one, too: Don't touch me. No hugs, no pets on the shoulders, nothing. Got it?"

"That part about touching was't needed. You see, I'm not that kind of 'Ooh, physical contact RAWKS!!' person. I reserve hugs and such for my family." Johnny was a little surprised by her answer, but he didn't show it. Suddenly, a slicing sound, like a knife drawn out of its sheath, was heard. Whatever it was that made the sound sliced sixteen times.

"What on Earth was that?" Gengi blurted out.

"Oh, nothing. Just the clock."

"What?! A clock that sounds like that? How bizarre. It can't be a clock, after all..."

"Why, of course it is a goddamned clock. I can show you it if you aren't believing me..." Johnny growled at her.

"Go for it", Gengi said with a smirk.

"All right", Johnny said. "Follow me." He walked to the kitchen, showing Gengi a big grandfather clock.

"Wow. That's pretty neat", Gengi exclaimed. Johnny opened the hatch and showed her the clock's workings. Gengi gasped when she saw the pendulum. It was a knife's blade, swinging back and forth in an almost hypnotic motion. (_I don't care if grandfather clocks doesn't work like this, it's just a story!_)

"Wow", Gengi whispered, her eyes filled with awe. "This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my whole life..."

"Er... Thanks", Johhny said, a strange grimace over his face. He wasn't used to blushing.

"This is so awesome! Like The Pit and the Pendulum!"

"Er... It's half past ten, and you should be asleep."

"All righty, I'll go to bed. By the way, where's the bathroom? I'd like to brush my teeth..."

"You carry a _toothbrush?! _Whenever were you using it?" Johnny grinned, the mere thought was just hilarious. Kinda like that one scene where the guy at the island gets all kinds of utterly useless crap, which movie was it, Island Guy 2?

"I didn't use it, it just felt kinda necessary to have with me. Kinda like carrying a pencil around, you never know when you'll need it. Where's the bathroom?"

"Oh, it's the green door, the one with a knife stuck in it."

Gengi rushed off, and Johnny was alone with his thoughts.

_You know, you've shouldered a great deal of responsibility now, Nny._

"Yes, I know, Nailbunny. It' just that... she looked like she needed somebody to care for her. Like Squee did, 'cept she's older and have no shitty parents to torment her."

_I hope that you aren't gonna nail her to the wall, too..._

"Hey, since when did you become sarcastic?"

_Since when did you care about little girls?_

"Oh, this is just pointless."

_What's pointless, Johnny? Your life? Her life? The world?_

"Stop it, Nailbunny. Just... stop it. You sound like the fucking Doughboys and I want to forget all about them..."Johnny shook his head. Why Nailbunny? He was the only voice that Johnny actually liked. Why did everything have to change? Why the hell was he stuck with this ridiculous haircut and no cool coat and a homeless kid to take care of? Why?

* * *

Okiedokie, this was Chapter two of this bizarre story. Please, tell me what you think about it (Oh GOD, my neighbours use of a power drill gives me a awful lot more sympathy with Johnnys killing tendencies...) Seriously, this chapter was horrible. I had no inspiration and almost Writer's Block, so... Yeah. It sucks. Review if you wish.

Johnny C, Nailbunny, the Doughboys and all that stuff belongs to the almighty Jhonen Vasquez, who can kill you with his mind (or so I heard). Gengi belongs to me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hemoglobine**

**-Chapter 3**

The first word Johnny uttered the next day was "Fuck". He didn't even open his eyes before saying it, so it truly was the first word Johnny spoke. He had reasons for it, other reasons than hating mornings. First of all, he was waking up, which meant that he must have been sleeping. That was not what he had planned. He'd planned to ponder what the hell to do with Gengi, perhaps read some more in Neuromancer, looking at the stars. Not sleeping. And second, he heard a male voice, howling "I'll eat your soul, I want your soul" over and over againg, which probably meant he was in Hell for no reason at all. Or maybe he was in Hell because he'd invited Gengi. Wasn't there something about inviting vampires to your homeand that it lead to damnation? Oh, wait, he was probably mixing things up. Johnny fixed his eyes shut, not wanting to see the horrors that lied before him.

"Johnny? You awake! I thought I heard something..." Gengi's voice made its way through Johnny's dazed mind. He opened his eyes, finding that he was lying on the couch.

"Er... Yeah, I'm awake" he muttered, wondering what twisted version of Hell that would feature a complete copy of his house. It was something weird about Gengi, the way she talked, her strange fascination with blood... Yes, definitely a demon. A

"I made you breakfast!" Her voice came from the kitchen, along with the smell of something frying and maple syrup. This place, where-ever in Hell it was, must have been engineered by an incredibly sick mind with a sense for details. Maybe he was inside his own mind. Maybe...

Johnny stopped his string of thoughts, tempted by the delicious smells coming from the kitchen. Remembering the awesome bagels in Hell, he didn't think twice of entering the kitchen. To his surprise, Gengi was not inexplainably tall, sprouted horns, or had goat's feet. She looked positively non-demonic, and was frying a pancake. She'd put a tapedeck on the counter, from which the terrible howls about soul-eating came.

"Just what the hell are you listening to?"

"Oh, just some Aphex Twin, I hope I didn't wake you up..." Gengi continued frying the pancake, and Johnny realized that it was a techno melody looping in the background. The haunting lyrics continued, and the man kept raving and raging about how he'd eat your soul.

"Hmm. That's a quite interesting song, but how were you able to make pancakes? There's nothing useful in this kitchen, 'cept some Instant-Super-Kawaii-Noodles and some cans of Skettio."

"Well, I found those, but I also found some pancake mix." Gengi smirked and flipped the pancake to a plate filled with its likes.

"That's strange, I've never ever seen pancake mix in this kitchen nor bought any. Now, explain the maple syrup."

"Well, that one's simple. I bought it at the 24-7."

"Oh." Johnny was surprised by this simple answer. Turns out reality isn't always cool and magical. They sat down and ate the pancakes with maple syrup (_Ooh, breakfast scenes are so amazing! You can really tell how I love to write them!_)

"Thank you very much for the breakfast", Johnny said and grinned.

"Oh, it was just a small payment to you. Y'know, I owe you one billion years of silent servitude, or something..." Gengi smirked.

"Nope, you owe me nothing, except cooking awesome stuff like this everyday. And you have to kill one googolplex of creepy, zombielike gigantic moose."

"Oh, man. I hate killing ridiculously huge amounts of zombie moose", Gengi said, and started laughing. Johnny started laughing, too. Just the thought of it was immensely silly.

"... Wait. Shouldn't you be in Skool?"

"Nope!" Gengi smirked. "I've quitted it."

"What?!" Johnny spat out.

"That's right. I quitted Skool. I can learn stuff when I want to, and I don't have to get the pointless stuff the Skool serves all the other kids mashed into my brain..."

"Hmm. I guess you're right. Take some books and get learning!" With that, Johnny left the table and fetched a big, black book from the bookshelf. "This", he exclaimed and made a dramatic gesture, "is _At the Mountains of Madness_. Read it and learn."

"It's that Lovecraft book, right?"

"Yes, it is. It's _the_ Lovecraft book."

_Why did you give her Lovecraft? Edgar Allan Poe's better..._

"No, Lovecraft's better if I'd like to educate her."

_Give her _EON_. That'll take her some time to wrap her mind around..._

"EON? Isn't that too hard for a..."

"You talking about EON, by Greg Bear? I've already read it..."

"Hah! My books are better, Nailbunny!" Johnny grinned.

_Or maybe my books are better, since she's read hem before she even heard of your suggestions..._

"Hey, who's Nailbunny?" Gengi asked, confusion spreading across her face.

* * *

Yeah, this is a cheap excuse for a chapter. Yep, I'm really sleepy right now, non-sleeping for too long apparently cripples your writing abilities. Read and review if it doesn't make your soul ache from the horrendous things you've just heard of in my story (grammar errors and spelling mistakes)...

Johnny C and everything else that's cool and awesome in this story belongs to Jhonen Vasquez, who's able to win over Cthulhu in a hand-to-hand fight (or so I heard). Gengi belongs to me (Nope, I'm not good at cooking in real life).


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Of all questions, why did she have to ask this one? Johnny shifted, very uncomfortable with her question. He looked down on his feet, not wanting to look her in the eyes when he told her.

"Ok, Gengi, I'm not sure how to put this, but... I hear things that I'm not... supposed to hear."

"Like... Voices in your head?" Gengi added, noticing Johnny's struggle to find the right words.

"Exactly. I hear voices in my head. Nailbunny's one of them. Actually, I used to hear other voices than Nailbunny, but they disappeared or something..."

There was a very awkward silence as both Gengi and Johnny tried to think of something to say. At last, Gengi broke the silence.

"...Johnny?"

"Yes, Gengi?" He stopped staring at the floor and looked at her face.

"I don't care if you hear voices. I mean, everybody's a bit insane, and... Well, you've been awfully nice to me, I mean I'm like a ticking bomb, just waiting to explode..."

"...Really? So you don't care wether I hear stuff or not?"

"No, I don't. But why is it named Nailbunny? It's a rather strange name..."

"Are you sure you'd like to hear that story?" Gengi nodded. "All right. He's called Nailbunny because he is a dead bunny that's nailed to the wall."

"Really? A dead bunny?" Gengi snickered at the thought. Even though it was a pretty creepy idea, it still was a funny one. "Wait. If you hear voices in your head, how do you know that it's that dead bunny who talks? I mean, the voices you hear are just in your head, right?"

"I know it's Nailbunny talking, it's just... Too hard to explain."

"Oh. Like in The Matrix. Your mind makes it real, Neo. You know, sometimes I think that the reality presented in The Matrix sounds very believeable."

"How? What do you mean?" Johnny was a bit confused by Gengi's miraculous ability to change the subject.

"Well, sometimes things seem way too good to be true. And sometimes, things look... weird. Like when you see texture seams on buildings, when the sky looks like a painfully obvious skybox, when you see that the same texture's been used on every leaf on a tree..." Gengi shifted into a very melodramatic pose, perhaps without realising it.

"Oh. I'm quite sure that's not the case. All the things you've described sounds more like you've been playing way too much video games."

"But... It must be true! It has to be! How else could there be an explanation for this... unrealness I feel? Am I a machine? A program? What am I? Dead or alive?" Gengi put her hand to her mouth, realising what she just had said. "Oh. I didn't mean... Er..."

"It's all right. We all question our sanity sometimes. Some, I assume, do it more frequently than others. But please, do explain. You say you feel like a machine. How?"

"Hmm... Like I'm not alive, that's how I feel. Like... Like I'm a wind-up toy, wind me up and watch me go. Get up, go to Skool, sleep. Get up, go to Skool, sleep, and so on _ad infinitum_. And I don't feel alive, like I'm not really here. Like I'm a program in The Matrix that's just realised it isn't a human being."

"Okay. But how did you do it? How did you succeed in non-feeling?"

"What? Oh, it's really simple. First, you need a screwed-up life. Then, add a pointless and mind-numbingly boring routine, such as Skool. Add a pinch of suicidal tendencies, insanity or depression, and stir for 5 minutes. There you have it: The Noble Art of Non-feeling." Gengi made a strange and very bitter face, and it took a while before Johnny realised it was a smile.

"Screwed-up life? Check. Suicidal tedencies, insanity and depression? Check. Pointless routine? Non-check." Johnny moved his hands as if he was checking a list while talking. "...Wait. I do have a boring routine, or at least I used to have one."

"Oh, which one? Skool, medication, work, booze?"

"Let's not go there..." Johnny replied darkly (_Stephen King would kill me for writing this! Oh, the horrid useage of adverbs..._). "Why can't we talk about something nice instead? Like...movies, perhaps?"

"Hmm. Movies... What movies do you like, Johnny?"

"I like all movies, but I prefer good ones", Johnny said and grinned.

"Me too", Gengi said and smirked. "My favourite movie is Blade Runner."

"Blade Runner, eh? It's one of my favourite movies, too. A candle that burns twice as fast burns twice as bright..."

"...and you've burnt so very, very brightly, Roy", Gengi finished the quote. "And then, he says something about 'The lost son' and he squishes his eyes out", she added.

"Correct. What do androids dream of, then?"

"Electrical sheep!"

"Yes ...or do they?" Johnny said in a spooky voice.

"Well, fiery the angels fell. Deep thunder rolled across their shores, burning with the fires of... er... something", Gengi said in a low, creepy voice, causing Johnny to shudder.

"Enough talking. Why don't we _watch_ Blade Runner instead?"

"Sure! Aren't you gonna say something 'bout the importance of fresh air and that you should never ever block out the daylight, even if you're gonna watch a movie?"

"Nope. I'm not exactly what most people'd call a healthy person, and watching a starry night sky sure beats looking at the sun..."

And so, our two heroes sat down, pulled down all curtains, made some microwave popcorn and watched Blade Runner. When the movie was finished, all the popcorn was eaten, Gengi was curled up in the couch, her arms wrapped around her legs, and Johnny had a huge grin spreading across his face.

"That was so awesome!"

"Yeah, it sure was. You wanna watch another movie, or should we do something else?"

"Nah, I'm not in the mood. Is this neighbourhood too dangerous to take a walk in at sunset?" Gengi made a extremely vague gesture towards the window, which showed the streets being coloured red by the setting sun's last rays.

"Yep. Every street there _is_ these days is extremely dangerous. Do you know how to defend youself if... something happens?" Johnny made a face as if he was eating a lemon when he thought of all the things that could happen in the streets to a girl.

"I'm not good at fighting, if that's what you mean. Hmm... I guess I could shock any assaulter by biting his neck artery off..." Gengi smirked at the thought of fresh, lovely blood flowing into her mouth, red liquid staining her lips, the salty, yet sweet taste of it ...Then, she stopped herself, realizing that she just had leaned closer to Johnny.

"What just happened? You got this really creepy look in your eyes, and..."

"_Guess_ what happened, Johnny", Gengi muttered and shot a dark look at him. "Now, how's it gonna be with that twilight walk? You care to join me?"

"Sounds like a plan, Rachael", Johnny said, grinning at her.

"Sure, Roy!" Gengi made a rather strange half-jump out of the coach, a very catlike motion. Unfortunately, the feline grace of it was ruined when she tripped over her own feet.

"So, you coming or what?" She looked over her shoulder, hand halfway to reach the doorknob, and watched Johnny put on a trenchcoat.

"All righty, Rachael, let's go."

They walked a while, finding that the streets were filled with trash, but emptied of people. When they got to the 24-7, a group of teenage boys were hangin' out outside of it.

"Look! It's the Freak Family!" yelled a blonde boy wearing baggy jeans and a grey hoodie.

"No, it isn't", one other boy yelled, sporting a huge grin. "It's two emo kids!"

"Yeah! Hey, emo girl, get over here", yelled the blonde boy.

Gengi walked up to the boys, asking what they wanted with her.

"Why are you an emo? Do you cut yourself? Do you always wear black? Why? You cry everyday? Answer me!"

"I'm terribly sorry, young man, but I am not an so-called emo. I do not wear black all the time, I'm not self-harming, and I am not the kind of person that cries. Is that a plausible answer?" Instead of being mad, Gengi resorted to speaking very polite and with an icy tone.

"...Wait. If you're not an emo, then you're... Uh..." The boy turned to his friends for a little help with finding the right words.

"Er... A goth?" suggested a tall boy.

"Yeah, a goth. Those are vampires, right? Are you a vampire, huh? You like sitting in the dark, burning... er... incense, having satanic rituals, or whatever you goths do?"

"Yeeessss", Gengi hissed. "You know, I am a vampire. I love sitting in the darkness of the halls in my mansion, where I tie blonde girls up before I sacrifice them to Satan. I really do..."

"I don't believe you. C'mon, she can't be a real vampire, right?" The boy turned to his friends for support, again.

"Oh, yes. Yes, I am a vampire. Watch." Gengi walked closer to the blonde boy and leaned in, as if she was going to kiss him. She pulled down his t-shirt collar and placed her lips on his neck. Suddenly, the boy let out a surprised yelp.

"Ouch! She bit me! That bitch fucking bit me! Look!" The boy ran to his friends and showed them. He was right, it was a bite mark on his neck. "Ah, shit! The curse! The cuuuursee!! I'm diseased! Aaaaaahhh!!!!" With that, he ran away.

"Oh, yes! You run away to your mommy and tell her 'bout the scary vampire that bit you!" Gengi yelled after the boy, with a northern English accent.

Johnny stood a few yards away from her, quietly chuckling to himself. (_Do Johnny chuckle in the comics? I don't know..._)

"Well, that might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen, Gengi." He grinned.

"It was? Really? I mean, they just pissed me off, and if they ask for a show, you gotta give 'em a show..."

"Do you always talk with a British accent when you're upset?"

"Oh, you noticed. It's just that it's the first accent of English I learnt at school, so I tend to revertebrate to that accent when I'm too upset to think of my language. Either that, or I'll burst out screaming and cursing in Swedish instead..." Gengi frowned and kicked a Sugary Mindcontrol can lying on the sidewalk.

"Hmm. You're from Sweden, right? But how did you end up here, in this horrible neighbourhood?" Johnny paused, looking at the 24-7. "Wait. Is that something that might be easier to talk about over a Brainfreezie?"

"Sounds wonderful, Johnny", Gengi said and smirked at him.

They walked into the 24-7. (_Note that in the town were I live, there's no 7-11's. So please, point out if my description's way off!_)

"Gengi, you choose first", Johnny said.

"Mmkay. Let's see... Cherry Doom, Icy Ham ...Mouth-numbing Mushroom? Where's the Frosty Peanut flavour?"

"Oh, they replaced Frosty Peanut with the mushroom thing a couple of weeks ago. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like it either get you really high or kill you..."

"Sure does... I'm sticking to Cherry, as I usually do."

"You like Cheery brainfreezies, too?" And they continued chatting like that, even when they paid for their drinks. The odd duo found a bench outside the 24-7, where they seated and happily slurped their brainfreezies.

"So. Your past. Tell me about it", Johnny said.

"My past? Well... What do you want to hear?" Gengi shot evil glares at the pidgeons half-hearted attempts to steal food from the trashcan around the pavement.

"What there's to hear, Gengi." Johnny looked directly at the girl, his eyes absent of all emotion but one: curiousy.

"Er... Yeah. My father's awesome. He's an AI programmer for video games, y'know, making the enemies behave properly and all that jazz. He's great, really. Or was, I guess, since I haven't met him in a while. He was really nice to me, listening, caring, letting me borrow his CD's..." Gengi was clearly lost in a flood of memories, judging by the look of her eyes. Then again, wasn't her pupils unusually large all the time?

"So, how about your mother?" Johnny asked. "...If you have a mother, that is", he added, rather sheepishly.

"I have a mother. She's ill." Gengi looked thoughtful for a moment, and then frowned.

"Oh, that's bad, I guess... So, what level of insane is she?"

Normally, a person with a mentally ill relative would have been very offended by such a thing, but Gengi was a potential killer, and she was talking to a man with too many wrongnesses in his head meat to list, so she continued conversating casually.

"She's bipolar. Probably something else, too, but I have no idea of what that particular something might be." She made a face. "I'm doing it again, right? Speaking too bloody uptight..." She paused, and shot a glare that even Medusa would have feared towards the pigeons, who finally realized their own good and walked away. "Okay, where was I? Oh, my mother. One day, she was going to see the doctor. You know, you get a little letter that says 'Dude, you gotta see the doctor now' or something, and... Anyway, she did just that, and then: Pow! She was locked up at a mental ward!" Gengi made some hand motions indicating a huge explosion when she said "Pow!".

"Locked up, you say? I've been dancing that blues too, you know..."

"Okay... Well, I have a little sister too, but she's really annoying, and then, there's Charlie..." Gengi sighed, lost in thought.

"Who's Charlie? Johnny asked, his eye twitching slightly when adding "Your boyfriend?"

"No. He's just my best friend." Gengi smirked, a sad expression filled with melancholy and longing. "It's not like I believe in angels or anything, but if angels existed and walked the Earth, then Charlie's one of them."

"Hmm." Johnny considered the idea of angels walking the Earth, and imagined a legion of those strange bunny thingies making their way towards his house. "We'd need an awful lot of carrots", he said.

"Pardon? I zoned out for a little while, what are you gonna use the carrots for?"

"Oh, nothing. I was only talking to myself", Johnny said. Why did he have to blurt out the stupidest things in public? Wasn't there ant kind of drain or filter or... something to stop his thoughts going directly to his vocal chords?

"Oh. I suppose that we might begin our heroic journey to our long-lost home", Gengi exclaimed, making a dramatic gesture towards the sky while talking. (_Yes, I'm very teatratical in real life, too._)

"Yep. Our heroic journey. Let's do it", Johnny said, his voice suddenly very tired and weary.

And by that, our two friends made their heroic journey home.

* * *

Author's Notes: I do not own Johnny, Nailbunny, Bladerunner or any of the awesome stuff. I own Gengi, since she's me, and Jhonen'll send you to He Who Walks Behind The Rows if you steal his characters.

This was a rather awful chapter, I think, but please, read and review.

Charlie, if you read this, I'd want you to know that you're the light in the end of the tunnel for me right now, and that you're the best friend there is in this universe.


	5. Chapter 5

****

Hemoglobine

**-Chapter 5**

WARNING. This chapter contains something truly horrid, so horrendous that I'm afraid I have to bump up the rating to Mature. Yes, it will melt your eyes and burn your mind if you are too young and read it. So, kids at home, cover your eyes!

* * *

_Why are you doing this, Johnny? _

The thin, almost skeletal man flinched at the sound of the familliar voice.

"Oh, it's you, Nailbunny. Why have you been so quiet?"

_You didn't answer my question. Why do you care about her? Why, Johnny?_

"Actually, I'm not sure. I guess she's... I don't know. She's not really right in the head, and... Shit. What am I talking about? I have no idea why I like her. Gengi just seems... Not like other people, I guess."

_Not lke the others, you say? Why, that might be a good sign. Or just a sign of you losing your judgement. And that is a very terrible thing, Johnny. _Nailbunny made a small, bitter laugh. Nny, you used to be so intelligent. You knew so much about people. You could read them like open books. What happened? Have you reverted to the wide-eyed credulousness of a child?

"Nailbunny, what is this? What the hell are you talking about? Me, losing my judgement? Hah! That's just ridiculous!" Johnny sounded more self-confident that he really felt, and tried to convince himself that Nailbunny was wrong. But yet, that one seed of doubt managed to lodge itself into his mind. He wasn't losing his one superior ability, was he? The ability to know the stupidity and pettyness of people, perhaps the result of his brain being marinated in cynism for so long. Oh well, what was the point of arguing with oneself, anyway?

_Nny, how do you know that Gengi's telling the truth? Doesn't it seem a bit weird to rant on about how you hate human contact and then bite a boy in the neck, as if it was completely natural? Gengi isn't what she looks like. She must be hiding something, don't you think?_

"No, she isn't. You know, the first thing she did when we came home was to take a shower, 'to clean myself of the touch of others', as she put it." Johnny paused, looking out through the window, seeing nothing but empty streets and a cloud-filled sky. The full moon gave off a foggy glow from behind its veil of clouds. "Well, she might be lying, but it seems... unlikely. I think that she needs a really good motive to lie to the hand that feeds her..."

* * *

Gengi smirked. She'd found a treasury. Perfect for what she had in mind, absolutely perfect. All of the treasures were so beautiful, each one of them glittering and shining in its own way. But she had to wait. Maybe, if she thought really hard of it, those... things would go away. Like the monsters behind the bookshelves did, back when she still was a child and believed in that stuff.

* * *

A week passed. Gengi was being her usual, mysterious and unpredictable self, and Johnny was being his usual self. The two drew together, somewhat unusual for Johnny, who'd had "Artist's Block" for a horrendously long period of time.

* * *

Yes. She had to do this, hadn't she? Those horrible thoughts couldn't go away, so she decided to stop them from appearing once and for all. There was no turning back now. She sat in the darkness of the basement, holding one of the treasures in her hand. She'd figured it all out by now. The corpses, the blood, Johnny. Everything was connected. _Connect the dots and you will see what little Jimmy is carrying. _Yes, that's what she did. She'd connected the dots and seen the pattern. Gengi tried to laugh, but no sound came out. Then, everything blurred together in a really weird way. All the red from herself, the grey of the floorboards and the greenish mold on the walls. And then, all the sounds -the creaking of the planks, the clanking of the chains in which the doomed were hanging, and all the sounds that she'd ever heard, too- mixed together to form... what was it? Music? Yes, music. Some kind of instrument, she couldn't figure out what kind, though. And then, the weirdest thing of them all happened. A strange, hoarse, whispering voice was formed in her head. And it sang.

_In heaven, everything is fine._

_In heaven, everything is fine._

_You've got your good things, and I've got mine..._

She tried to sing along to the familliar song, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a strange, hoarse sound that frightened her. It didn't sound like her own voice. She stopped to try and make sounds and just enjoyed the music. It was so soothing, so calming, so... Good. She was so concentrated on the song that she didn't really know what her hands were doing. Suddenly, a sharp pain in the chest. When she looked down, she saw something silvery sticking out of her. It looked almost like the hilt of a knife. But before she could see clearly what it was, the redness took over her field of sight and then faded to darkness.

_In heaven, everything is fine..._

* * *

Johnny was on his way home from the 24-7. He'd been shopping for groceries. He wasn't really used to feeding somebody else than himself, and Gengi ate more frequently than him, anyway. If he hadn't been the absent-minded soul he was, he might have noticed that something wasn't right. Maybe, he'd noticed how strange Nailbunny'd sounded when they talked. If he only had been a bit more attentive, things wouldn't have been like this. Johnny felt a chill creep up his spine the very moment he walked over the doorstep.

"Hello... ...?"

No answer. _Oh well, Gengi's probably reading or something in her room_, he thought. Then, Johnny saw the note. It was pinned to the kitchen wall with a knife, and it read:

**Dear Johnny. I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I have to. I also know where that blood you gave me came from. Yes, I've seen the corpses, and I don't care. They propably deserved it. When you read this letter, I will be dead (at lest I hope I will). The reason for me to do this is that I've been thinking about you in unacceptable ways. And no matter how hard I wished for it, those thoughts wouldn't go away. I should have asked before I borrowed your smiley knifes, sorry.**

**Love, Gengi.**

It had to be a joke. A morbid, sick, over-the-top, dude-that's-not-funny-anymore kind of joke. She couldn't be doing it for real. No, it had to be a joke. But then again, he wasn't sure, so he had to go down to the basement and check. So Johnny did. At the first glance, it looked like Gengi was crying. She had her face buried in her hands, and was crouching with her back against the wall. But Gengi wsn't crying. She was too still, too quiet. Johnny walked up to her and tried to move her stiff hands from her face, so that he'd see what was wrong. Johnny gasped at what he saw; two terrible cuts on the inside of her wrists, blood oozing out of them. But that wasn't all. The knife with the happy face was firmly lodged in her chest. Johnny shook her, desperately trying to shake some life into her. She had that look, the light in her eyes being replaced with darkness., He'd seen it so many times before. The look of corpses. As the thought hit Johnny in the head, something really strange happened, something truly unexplainable. The walls in the room seemed to... _warp. _They shrunk and got bigger, stretched in weird angles and, at last, twisted around completely so that Johnny was on the opposite side of the room. Johnny felt everything go soft and kind of mushy, and his vision faded into complete darkness.

* * *

Author's Notes: Yes, the reason it took me so horribly long to write this chapter was because killing off a character that's based on yourself isn't a very easy thing to do.

I have no experience of suicides, so I'm not sure if the death scene really is good.

Yes, I admit. The stuff about the room changing was almost word-for-word copied from "Departure", a very good song by Bauhaus. The song that Gengi hears is "In Heaven" from Eraserhead (a movie by David Lynch). Bauhaus made a awesome cover of it.

I only own Gengi. Everything else belongs to Jhonen (yes, mortals, kneel before your true, cyborg master! KNEEL!!).

Jhonen will eat one crump of your soul a day if you steal his stuff (or so I heard). So, copycats, enjoy your slow and horrible fate of soullessness!


	6. Chapter 6

**

* * *

**

Chapter Six

Gengi managed to open one eye, and saw a big, black... thing. What was it? She recognised it, but... Yes. Letter. It was a letter, but which one? An... H. H is for Hurt, she thought, and closed her eye.

She blinked, rubbed her eyes and got up from her position. Apparently, she'd been lying on the ground. Everything was kind of dirty and run-down and the random patches of grass that covered the ground was wilted. _This place looks horrible_, Gengi thought as she stared at the big metal sign. HEAVEN, it said, in big, black letters. She looked around a bit, and saw a desk where a man sat. She almost stopped halfway through her first step because of the sharp pangs of pain in her chest. _I will not give up because of mere, physical pain. I will not. I will not. _Slightly consolated by this mantra, she staggered up to the desk.

"Hmm. What do you want?" A man, dreadlocks and glasses, looked at her. He was sitting behind a computer.

"I... Pleazzzee, let me... in..." Gengi's voice was hoarse with disuse, and her breast ached with every breath she took.

"Hmm... Let's see... Your name?"

"Gengi..." She coughed, and something red splattered onto Saint Peter's desk. He turned to her with a look of pure disgust.

"Mmyep, you're allowed inside. Says here you're 1 percent over the minimum amount of goodness." Suddenly, Saint Peter's eyes widened with fear as a shadow fell across his face. "Oh my god, it's _you_!"

"Yes, I'm me. Now, hurry up and heal her with your angelic powers." From behind of Gengi came the sound of a familiar voice.

"Whuh? Johnny?"

The scrawny homicidal maniac walked up beside her, slamming his fist in the desk. "C'mon, patch her up! I haven't got all day, you see!"

"B-but... It says here you aren't dead..."

"Well, fuck that. I have no idea why I'm here, but now I am and you better take care of my friend, you lazy bastard!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah", Saint Peter muttered under his breath. He poked around in his drawers for a moment, and gave Gengi a tube of ointment. "Here." He pulled the knife out of her chest, ignoring her whimpers, and asked her to rub the ointment in her wounds.

"What? You sure? Nothing... angelic?" Gengi frowned.

"This is Heaven, and I'm an angel. Now, rub it in..."

Gengi obeyed Saint Peter, and felt how the pain melted away. She found that she could breathe normally, and somehow, the dirt on the pavement and the horrible-smelling refuse can seemed like they didn't exist. All that mattered was that she was in Heaven and man, was it heavenly. Everything felt good and she sensed that something Larger Than Life, something truly divine, was near.

"Am I supposed to go through that one _big _gate over there, nice angel man?" Something childish, something as sweet and viscous as honey crept into her voice.

"Yes. Yes, you are. The big gate. Go, kid, I've got work to do." Gengi obeyed without questions and happily skipped inside Heaven's doors.

* * *

"So... You're not letting me in, huh?"

"No, I'm not. I was about to get fired the first time, you idiot. They changed the rules, now it says: Rule no. 1: The being known as Johnny C. may never ever enter Heaven if it is not the Judgment Day. "

Johnny glared at Saint Peter. The angel kept looking at him without lowering his eyes, so Johnny raised the level of venom in his gaze. Finally, after a gaze so venom filled, it'd kill all organic life on Earth, Saint Peter gave up.

"What do you want? Stop staring at me like that, it's creepy."

"Let me in, dammit."

"No, you thick-headed moron, I won't."

"I think I'm able to motivate you to let me in quite nicely..." A huge, toothy grin graced the maniac's face as he reached for a knife somewhere on his skinny form.

"All right, all right, I'll let you scare the newcomers. That enough for you?"

Johnny shrugged. "I guess so."

* * *

As the huge gate closed behind her, Gengi noticed a friendly-looking woman staring at her. Well, she wasn't that friendly-looking. In fact, she had that look on her face that a shark might give a blood-coughing baby herring who believes that everything large and grey is its mother. But, since Gengi was such an optimistic child, even that look was friendly.

"Greetings, child." The woman extended her hand in a gesture that might have been welcoming.

"Hi!" Gengi's eyes sparkled with curiosity. "Who are you?"

"My name's Damned Elise and I'm going to be your guide here in Heaven."

"Why are there flying bunnies here?"

Elise rolled her eyes. Children. So clueless, so naïve, so... stupid. "I have no idea, little girl."

"A sign outside, where the nice angel man is, said that you had churros. Where are they?"

"They serve churros at the Taco Yell."

"Ooooohh, you have a Taco Yell? I wanna go there!"

And the conversation carried on like this until the damned woman and little girl reached their destination.

"Well, here it is. There's a empty seat at the left, behind that short guy."

Gengi looked at the mass of people sitting in chairs in front of her, eyes glazed over.

"Are they in a coma or just bored?"

"They're neither, actually. They are in a state of complete bliss, so they feel no need to do anything."

"Come _on_. They're in Heaven, for Christ's sake! And they're just wasting their time! Shit, kids at my _school_ looked more awake than these guys! I mean, if I was in Heaven, I'd at least try to do something! Hey, wakey-wakey, lazybones!" After a lot of childish chit-chatting, a huge portion of the old Gengi managed to squeeze its way into her voice. (_'Squeeze'. I like that word. It's almost as easy on the tongue as 'noodle soup'. No, I'm not insane. Not at all..._)

"Hey, stop complaining! Thing is, here in heaven, people have accepted the horrid waste of brain usage that anger is, and therefore, they haven't got any need at all to use their awfully destructive psionic powers. Anyway, why don't you take a seat and lean back and relax?"

"Did you just say 'destructive psionic powers'?" Gengi looked innocently at Elize, who wasn't used to the company of Gengi. Little did she know what would follow that innocent look…

"Why, yes, I did. Take a seat and it'll be over in no time at all", Elize said in a very dentist-like voice. "_Oh man, my head aches. Gotta get some aspirin when I'm done with her…_" she muttered under her breath.

"…Wait. I know you from somewhere, don't I?" This was directed to a brown-haired, pretty girl sitting on a chair in front of her. "Yes. You're Angelina, right? This is for what you did to me during all those years…" Gengi made a mischievous, yet very concentrated face, as if she thought really, really hard on some horrible April fool's practical joke. After about five seconds, the girl named Angelina started to scream.

"_Oh god, what did you do to me, you bitch?!_ My… H-heart is… imploding… _EIIARRRGGHH!!_ L-l-ook at… my shirt… bitch… cough." And with this, she died. Awful, no?

"Hmm. My powers seem to be working. Gotta try it again!" She smirked and managed to make an old man's heart implode.

"Oi, quit it! That was my _formal _heart, there!" The old man shot Gengi a deadly glare and made her heart implode.

"You old fart! I was just testing, you know! This is unfair!"

"Wheeeeee!! Heart destroyin' war! I's gonna kill ya!" a little boy, about four years old, shouted gleefully. Then, he imploded 54 hearts all at once. Probably needless to say, those 54 persons got really annoyed and went after the little boy. Total chaos ensued when Gengi tried to get her revenge on the old man, and accidentally imploded the heart of a middle-aged woman with too much makeup.

"You rotten kid! I'm the Queen Bitch of the Known Universe, and I'm not gonna let a skinny brat destroy my carefully preserved heart! I may break hearts, others may NOT BREAK MINE!!" With these words, all hearts in Heaven imploded. At once.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…" Damned Elize, the very image of businesslike moderation and calm, was gnawing her fingernails bloody by anxiety. "I don't even wanna imagine what they'll make me do this time…"

"Hey, this is kinda fun", Gengi said casually and psionically slaughtered a bunch of teenagers.

"I CANNOT TAKE THIS ANY LONGER! WHY THE FUCKING HELL AM I ALWAYS GETTING THE WACKOS?! BE GONE WITH YOU!" Elize was really, really, really fed up. After the damned's mighty roar, Gengi vanished with a puff of smoke.

* * *

"Well, would you lookit that. Your little friend's gone to Hell." Saint Peter said this with the shadow of a smile at his face.

"She's gone to—? Oh. Hell. I see…"

"I'd better let you tag along, then. You seem to enjoy her company so very much…" The angel let a really sleazy smile grace his face, the sort of smile that suggested thousands of depraved actions.

"What the fuck are you insinuating, you—" Johnny vanished before he had time to finish the sentence.

* * *

Gengi landed on some kind of asphalt surface. It wasn't a very good landing. Johnny landed in an elegant pose beside her.

"Oh, what do we have here? My dear little waste lock, what are you doing here?" The shadows around them thickened and formed the tall form of Satan. His voice was deep and sounded cultivated, like a nobleman's voice.

"A-are you the devil?" Gengi's eyes were bigger than saucers when she said this.

"I am known by many names, including 'the devil'. I'd prefer to be—"

"Så du heter alltså Horn-Per, Gammelerik, Fan, Hin Håle och Den Onde?" (_in English, it's "So your name's Horned Peter, Old Eric, (untranslatable), (impossible to translate) and The Evil One?" Sorry for the shitty translation, but I cannot do any better_)

"Ja, barn, du har rätt. Now, let's stick to English to not confuse your important and busy friend, shall we?"

"Why did I have to come with you? And weren't you supposed to be in Heaven, Gengi?"

"Well… I, uh, kinda messed up there, so… Here I am."

"Did this mess-up have anything to do with, say, the events of heads exploding?" Johnny grinned at Gengi as he said it.

"Not really, more like imploding hearts…" Gengi stared at her boots and blushed.

"Please tell me what you and your daughter are doing here, waste lock", Satan demanded.

"Firstly, we aren't related in any way. Secondly, it's your goddamn universe that's really full of bugs. She died, and when I found her, everything got black and here I was. _You_ better tell _me_ what's going on, you rude, coat-stealing bastard!" Johnny had that special gleam in his eyes that indicated that something involving violence was about to happen.

"Okay, I haven't got a damn clue of what you guys are talking about. What's a waste lock? How did you know about exploding heads in Heaven? What the bloody hell has coats got to do with, well, Hell?!" Gengi's eyes got wider and wider, the more she yelled at them.

"Calm down, calm down. Although your wrath is delicious, I do not need it. I've already eaten. I will explain. This man beside you is what we like to call a waste lock. You do know about the horrible things in this world, right? Our little waste lock here is what keeps them out. He keeps the vile stuff you create away from you. Pretty heroic, no?" Satan smiled.

"C'mon, explain stuff for real now. You've been using lots of words for no information at all." She kicked at an empty DemonSoda can.

"I have explained. Ask and I will answer; for what you don't say I cannot answer."

"Why the fuck is Johnny here? Explain, you weird, demonic you."

"He is here because we haven't quite fixed the time travel bug in the software yet."

"Time travel bug?" She raised one eyebrow at Satan's uttering.

"Yes, since the universe as you know it actually was quite buggy in the earlier editions", Satan said and shifted uncomfortably, "it sometimes let random mortals experience so-called time jumps. Sometimes, this led to quite strange experiences here in the afterlife –people could see their not-yet-born children here, and so on. Our technicians worked hard to eliminate that particular bug, but it looks like we still have some issues with the flow of time."

"That doesn't explain why he's here. That only explains that you guys are lousy programmers." Gengi scowled.

"Well, your little friend is here because of a pesky little bug that somehow is connected to the time travel bug. It does, to use your wordings, screw up the system of destiny. You see, Johnny's existence has a purpose."

"So? My life doesn't, or what?" Gengi glowered at the tall demon lord before her.

"As I was going to say", Satan retorted sharply, "your life is not purposeless, it's only the fact that Johnny's is…" A small imp with mirror shades tapped his elbow, since he was too short to reach Satan's shoulder. "Yes?" A frenetic whispering followed, with Satan occasionally humming, shaking his head and raising his eyebrows. "Show me her file."

"Y-yes, Overlord", the imp stuttered. He grabbed a small, glowing ball, about the size of a marble, from his breast pocket and gave it to Satan.

"Hmm… I see. Oh… This isn't so very good. No, not at all. I thought I told that fat idiot to fix it, but _oh_ no, he _had_ to buy legless bunnies instead…" The devil muttered underneath his breath while eyeing the strange ball of light.

"What's the problem? Some moron spilled coffee in the Xerox, or what?"

"Er… Gengi, apparently, your life had a very important purpose, which I cannot tell you. Sorry for the inconvenience, but you should have thought of staying alive. Oh, curses, I'll have to redo the whole thing again… Stupid God, him and his 'free will'…."

"Satan, you better fucking fix this thing up", Johnny said. "I've already been through this shit once, how comes your programmers are so fucking lazy?!" (_Worst lines ever written? Holy lord, I truly am awful at writing…)_

"Sorry, Johnny, this girl seems to have an aura of contagious reality distortion around her. This means that you, indeed, died, too. I'm sorry, but as I said, this is the beta version and we have some new co-workers here, newly fallen angels, that are apt at destroying our carefully crafted code."

"What?! I have to die twice? Why the fuck can't you ever fix anything? This is getting horribly annoying…" Johnny was already reaching for the knives in his pockets.

"As I said, I'm not responsible for these sorts of things", Satan said, clearly fed up with these mortals hindering his work. "However, _he_ is", he added, pointing at the short, mirror shaded imp, who turned paler than a sheet and started quivering with fear. Johnny stared long and hard at the imp, like a snake trying to hypnotize its prey.

"You made all this? You? You, a little hobgoblin thing in mirror shades?" Johnny's voice was completely calm, as opposed to his yelling a few seconds ago. But this wasn't the normal kind of calm, the calm that meant controlling one's emotions; this was the calm before the storm, the terrifying quiet before the guillotine's blade falls; the calm just before the mob starts throwing Molotov cocktails. A grin formed at Johnny's face. A flash of silver, knife in his hand, only blur as he moved. The imp, however, was faster and kept hovering out of Johnny's reach on his ugly little bat-like wings, calling him names. Gengi was biding her time during this dispute, staying in the background and pondering. Yes, she pondered, thought, figured and schemed. Her plan had to be waterproof, lavaproof, vacuumproof, foolproof and geniusproof. So thinking was all she did, really. Thinking and watching, trying to remember all stories she'd heard. Trying to recall what she could use in them. Suddenly, she opened her mouth. _This is it, _she thought. _If this fails, everything will fail._

"Death is a negative thing, right?" Gengi asked Satan, with that special little smirk that meant she was up to something. Something mischievous, perhaps, or just something really fishy.

"Yes, I suppose one could say that, but what are you trying to…"

"And life is a positive thing, yes?" Gengi interrupted the demonic overlord, something nobody had yet done and lived to tell about it. Well, technically after-lived, but that's getting away from the point.

"Well, most mortals would say it is…"

"Basic maths says that two negatives make a positive. And since death is a negative thing, two deaths form a life, since life is a positive thing. Johnny has already died once, ergo he lives. My death and his death combined leads to him continuing to live."

"WHAT?!" Satan spat. "You, fetch me the Celestial Agreements and the Read Me Tome." He glowered at the imp and the short, winged thing flew away, mysteriously disappearing in a puff of smoke. After an uncomfortable while, filled with smoke rising from the demon lord's body and the ground glowing as he wandered in circles, thinking about what to do, the imp returned with two books. One was made out of glass (or at least something that looked like it), and the other was bound in black leather, with wrought-iron thorns wrapped around it. The glass book smelled like plastic, shoe polish, ballpoint ink and spoiled eggs, the other book like blood, meat, earth and rot. Both of the smells were overwhelmingly strong and sent chills up Gengi's spine. What had she done? What if this just made Johnny eternally damned? She felt like something inside of her had broken, something important. Satan skimmed through the books, muttering to himself. When he read them, he didn't look at the pages. He had his eyes closed and let his spindly fingers leap over the pages, as if they were in Braille.

"Why is thisss? Which one of usss made thisss agreement? Thisss isss… wrong." He'd started to hiss, and the two mortals noticed that his tongue was starting to fork and blacken (y'know, like a snake's tongue). "Asss a deity, I have to follow thessse rulesss. And they sssay that chessss and mathematicssss are the two thingssss that may be ussssed to cheat death." Sparks flew off his body, the ground where he stood glowed. Gengi quivered in fear, the fear of something primal, something so much bigger and more powerful than her. She had defied the lord of all evil, and he wasn't happy about it...

* * *

Oooh, what a cliffhanger, eh?

NOw, I'm awfully sorry for not updating in a gwadzillion years, but life got in my way.

Sorry.

Anyway, if you liked what you saw, and your eyes aren't bleeding blobs of jelly after these horrendous writings (yes, they are bad), please review.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Gengi had another ace up her proverbial sleeve. It was very simple and almost painfully childish, but an ace is an ace, no matter how infantile it is.

"I'm ssssick of you, alwaysss hindering me from doing what I do besssst", Satan hissed. He snapped his fingers — and it all went so quick, you would have missed it if you'd blinked — Gengi clutched Johnny's shoulder, milliseconds before the waste lock disappeared with a puff of smoke. Much to Satan's surprise, Gengi disappeared, too, in the very same puff of smoke.

"Plentiful of curssssessss!" The mere sound of his voice caused every plant in a 5-metres radius around him to wilt. "I am lossssing my carefully presssserved mind, dealing with thesssse awful mortalsssss…" His face changed into an, if possible, even more horrifying face: a smile. Well, it wasn't really a smile. It was more a twisting of facial muscles and showing of teeth. To an untrained eye, however, it might have been a smile. "Yeeeessss… I'll use _him._"

Johnny landed in the old, ratty couch in the living room. Gengi, however, wasn't that lucky. She landed face-down on the floor.

"Oummph!" She let out a muffled cry. "S-shit, Johnny, I think I broke my glasses…"

Johnny just laughed. It was such an absurd thing to say. "You broke your _glasses_?" He exploded in a howling, hysterical fit of laughter. Gengi started laughing, too.

"No, s-serious-l—y… I broke my fucking g-glasses!" She rolled around on the floor, crying with hysterical laughter.

"Eheh… Heh. No, seriously, you did?"

"Well, heh-heh, not really. Actually, they just got pushed into my head, like this. See?" The girl rolled over to face him. Her glasses were, indeed, pushed into her eyesockets in a way that looked both comical and horribly painful.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Johnny let a faint smile grace his sickly-looking face. After all, it was funny. Kinda like an Ed Wood movie. Absurd, weird, awful, but still, you laugh 'til your belly hurts. Yes, funny.

_Wow, you're back. Good, I missed you. _Nailbunny droned, sounding bored.

"Why so sad? It's not like I had anything to do with the whole death and resurrection thing, anyway…"

"Who are you talking to?" Gengi looked puzzled, still lying on the floor.

"Oh, just Nailbunny. I've told you about him, right?"

"Yes, you have. Wait, if I do this, they might pop outta my eyesockets…" Gengi made a very ugly face, and the glasses popped out. It looked like something from a cartoon. She sat up, grinned and lept up into the couch. "Muuuch better!"

"Hmm. Tell me, which were these, quote, "unacceptable ways", end of quote, of which you thought of me? They weren't related to", he made a face when uttering the word, "_love_ in any sort of way?"

"God and Satan forbid, no. Never. Ever. But I was thinking about, say, slicing you up and drinking all of your blood. According to me, that's a quite unacceptable way of thinking about a very dear friend, isn't it?"

"You're right. So, what was up with the whole self sacrificing thing in hell?"

"Come _on_", Gengi said in a "_duh_" kinda voice. "Isn't that obvious? You're the kind of person that deserves to live. To quote Blade Runner, "_Too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?_" The answer to that question is you. Johnny. You keep on living. You live because you have to, and you want to, and you need to."

"That's more an explanation wrapped in a layer of bullshit, but I guess I can't get anything else outta you. On to next question: Why did you clutch my shoulder?"

"Someone, I can't remember who, said that life's a poison. It's true. After only one drag of air, you crave more. It's like a drug. A terribly potent and dangerous drug, that always ends with the death of the addict, but still a drug. And I felt withdrawal symptoms down in hell."

"That's an answer… I guess. Now, I sense a disturbance in the force. You in the mood for some lovingly cooked instant noodles?"

"Um… Maybe. You said something 'bout dying again. What did you mean? Is that true?"

"Well… I did die once. At least, that's what I think. But I'm not sure whether that just was a horrendously long and awful dream or something that actually took place."

"Well, unless I suffered from a massive hallucination, you were with me. I killed myself, and you were there. It was the most fucked up thing I've ever experienced."

"Maybe some asshole'd poisoned the maple syrup you bought, and we had a huge damn fever and it was just a dream." Johnny sighed and began doodling on a scrap paper with an old ballpoint pen.

"Yeah, maybe. Sounds kinda probable, according to everything else weird that's been happening lately."

"So, the noodles again. Are you sure you aren't hungry?"

"What? I never said I wasn't hungry, is that maple-induced fever still messing with your brain?"

"Who cares?" With that, he walked to the kitchen, Gengi following him like he was some sort of heavenly being. Johnny boiled some water, and left the act of trying to find any noodles in his messy kitchen to Gengi. She dug through every cabinet of his, even some which, judging by their looks and contents hadn't been opened for years. It took as while, but eventually, she found a couple of Super Ultra Kawaii Instant Noodles. There was a picture of a really happy cat-like thing on the wrappings, and Gengi frowned at it.

"Ugh, this thing is just… too happy. Look at it!"

"I haven't noticed that before, but… just look at it. Its head'd be cut in half with a smile like that." Johnny stared at the colourful wrapping. "My god, it's ugly. I think something in my eyes have broken from looking at it."

"My eyes, too. Well, let's eat the stuff and forget all about that… picture. I don't know about you, but I wanna keep my sanity intact, and to think about that… face is kinda like putting an ice cube in a frying pan and hoping it won't melt." She plopped the noodles in the kettle and winced when some of the water splashed her hand. "Uh… Where's the little flavouring thingie?"

"Don't you know? These are Super Ultra Kawaii noodles, they only come in non-flavoured." Johnny raised an eyebrow at her.

"They do? Wow, that's a really elegant way of making people buy crap because of the colourful wrapper. I think it's a really good metaphor of how today's society is. Shit in a pretty wrapper." The girl looked like she was in deep thought, a somewhat strange expression on such a young face.

"Could apply to people, too." Johnny perched himself on the kitchen bench (is that the word for it?).

"Yeah, it definitely could. I mean, just _look_ at them. It's like Brazil, but with less ducts." She took the noodle kettle off the stove, poured the steaming contents into two chipped bowls, and handed over one of them to him.

"No spoon? You're a damn cheapo." He grinned at her, a wide, somewhat uncomforting smile.

"Naw, I'm a total nice guy. Here ya go, use it wisely." She rummaged through some of his drawers until she found a beautiful, embellished silver spoon, which she held triumphantly in the air. "Shit! Too hot! Burnt my tongue!" She made a face.

"Haven't you learnt to eat noodles? I thought kids these days actually learnt something in school, but turns out my hopes are too high. As always…" His joking tone faded away, like a flame suffocating (is that the correct word? Y'know, it dies from lack of oxygen), and a great bitterness filled his words. "Every time I try to think positive, it turns out I'm wrong. People are never trustable. Never. And the same to everything else, too. Something _looks_ good, you think, 'This movie'll be good', or 'That coat looks nice' or 'This new chips flavour seems yummy', but it always turns out to be wrong. The movie makes you wish you'd rather have terminal cancer than watched it, the coat looked good but the collar almost strangled you and the lining's all wrong, the new chips taste in such a way that you wish for a knife to cut your tastebuds out. It's all the same, but I never seem to learn. I try to be positive about stuff really hard, and how am I rewarded? Sometimes I feel like it would be good if a nuclear war destroyed the civilized world completely, it'd be good to get a fresh start. To see if everything still is shitty…"

"Hey, hey, calm down. Remember, I'm the stupid li'l kid here, okay? I'm a klutz; I burn myself on lotsa stuff. But I think you may be right, there. We need a fresh start; we need something that'll make people stop being the stuck-up little pricks that they are. I've seen more than you may think. Homo Sapiens Sapiens is, in general, a horrifying species. I've seen what people are capable of doing. I respect you for doing those things to those guys in the basement, those fucking assholes deserved it."

"So you found out? Well, I thought you were going to freak out a little bit more, but it's ok. And yes, they deserved it indeed. I… I've had different reasons for killing them, but right now, I do it just for you."

"That was sweet, in a completely fucked up kinda way." Gengi smiled at him, an unnerving experience.

"Wait here, okay? I'm gonna splash some ice cold water on my face and see if it helps with this complete freakiness that's taking place right now."

"Mmkay, go ahead. I'll try to eat these noodles without burning my mouth to ashes and fleshy dust."

* * *

Johnny sat cross-legged on the bathroom floor. He needed some time for himself, some time to think.

"Nailbunny, you've always helped me out in times of need. You've always stood up for me against the Doughboys. You know what to do, right?"

_Ooh, you haven't lost your cleverness, Johnny. Very clever of you to start with sucking up to me, and then tell me to help you. You've got me in an indebtedness trap. Clever indeed._

"What? I never did that! Stop interpreting things that aren't there! All I want you to do is, well, what you always do. Give me some advice and all that. For instance, did that death-and-afterlife thing really happen?"

_Which one of them?_

"Okay, scratch that one. What to do? I mean, with her and everything. Everything's just hideously messed up, and I'm not sure a vacation will be the solution now."

_You already know the solution, Johnny. It's so simple; a five-year-old could figure it out while sleeping._

"I'm not a sleeping five-year-old, quit those riddles and just tell me already", Johnny sneered, kicking at the white enamelled tin of which the bathtub was made of.

_I _thought_ you maybe could figure it out on your own, but clearly, you have no time for independent thinking. Get rid of the girl, in whatever fashion you deem appropriate. She spreads insanity around her like a cloud of parasitic spores, preying on all minds that spend any longer time with her. This includes you._

"She does? I thought she was only spreading a smell of blood and old leather around her", Johnny said, his face, clearly lost in thought, contrasting with the somewhat joke-ish words of his uttering.

_The only way to fix this mess is to get rid of her, and you know it. _A snicker was heard from Nailbunny, and then…

Images. Images flashing before him. Images of things, unspeakable things, things beyond the limits of language, done to a human. Somehow, the face was always left intact, no matter how the body had been treated. It was Gengi's face. Johnny muttered a thousand and one expletives, wanting the flow of images to stop. He tried to open his eyes, not remembering having shut them in the first place. His eyelids just wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. He tried pinching them, but it made no difference. He cried out in frustration, trusted his head back when doing so, and felt coldness against the hairless skin. Coldness, then naught but darkness.

* * *

Gengi ate her noodles, wondering what took her re-resurrected friend so long. After all, splashing water on one's face wasn't so hard. But then again, everything in Johnny's house seemed to be almost broken or at least very strange. She grinned when she thought of the grandfather clock. The tap was probably broken or something. She finished her noodles and walked to her room, knowing better that to bother Johnny when he was doing something. Images of the corpses she'd found in the basement flashed briefly before her sight, she shuddered and rubbed her eyes to get rid of them. _At the Mountains of Madness _was lying on the chipped bedside table next to the beautifully ornamented wrought-iron bed.

"Feels good to see you again, although I'm not sure about the hair", she told her reflection in the dirty old mirror. She smiled at her mirrored self, feeling happy about that she actually was back, and nothing could change it. And then… The smile froze on her face. She felt like someone just had poured perma-frost inside her abdomen.

"No. Oh, God and Satan, no." Her voice was nothing but a mere whisper, fear filling her veins like ice.

_The word is yes. Oh, God and Satan, _yes_. Get used to it; you'll be saying it a lot from now on._

* * *

Now, what on earth is going on? What happened to Johnny? And what happened to Gengi? Did Satan extract his revenge? Who knows? Who cares? If you review, I'll most definitely write the next chapter much faster than I did this one.


	8. Chapter 8

Johnny ran his hands over his head, finding a big bump on the back of his head.

"That _hurt_", he growled. "Nailbunny, what the fuck happened?"

Silence.

"…Nailbunny? Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" He sighed a deep, deep sigh, and laid down on the bathroom floor. He was weary, oh, so weary of things like this. He stared at the crackled paint in the ceiling, sighing again.

_I'm still here, there's no reason to get upset. _

"What the hell happened? Those _things_ I saw… What were they?"

_The future is a fleeting thing, my boy, and all I did was showing you some of the possible outcomes of your actions._

"What?! I'd never do that to her! Never!"

_You have done the same things to the people in your basement. She's no different. She'll look just the same if you skin her, the same if you cleave her skull open, and the same if you try that wonderful machine that's like an iron maiden and a guillotine on her. She's made of the very same flesh and blood as they are. I cannot see why you can't do that to her. She isn't different at all…_

"Yes, she is. She sure is different. She's just a kid, you know. She's kinda like Squee; I get the same kind of feeling when I look at her."

_Yes, yes, yes… Squee. Oh, how much better hadn't it been if you would have stayed at the hospital with him. Sure, the food was downright horrendous and the noise from the inmates was awful, but nothing there could even compare to what _she's _doing to your mind, Johnny…_

"So you mean that that… _hospital_ was better than her? That she's making me go insane?" Johnny spat out the word "hospital" like it was a poisonous beetle in his mouth.

_Yes. _Nailbunny's voice was strange, piercing, like sand paper for Johnny's eardrums. Nailbunny's normal voice was gentle and slightly sad, why this tone of voice that seemed to burrow into the deepest core of your brain, forcing you to obey? However, Johnny was used to voices screaming in the dark corners of his brain in this tone, so he had no difficulty controlling himself.

"Nailbunny, what the fuck is happening?! Or should I just call you Doughboy right away? Huh? Huh?!" Johnny arose from the floor, and glared at his reflection in the dingy, cracked mirror, half expecting to see Nailbunny in there. Of course, the mirror showed nobody else but himself.

"Please, just… Go away."

_You know I can't, my dear._

"What do you mean, 'can't'? Of course you can, just… Get the fuck out and we'll forget all about it, okay?"

_No. I'm afraid I cannot do that, my dear._

"Well, _I'm_ afraid I can't let you stay here." She said this in a cocky fashion, trying to disguise the fact that she was almost paralyzed by fear.

_Like you could do anything about it. It's not like you could throw me out or anything… _A laugh, like splintering glass, was heard.

"Well, I know one who maybe could." An insidious smirk graced her face; and she raised her voice to the top of her lungs. "JOHNNY!"

Johnny flinched at his name, screamed by Gengi on the top of her lungs, echoing through the house.

"What is it now?" he muttered to himself as he leapt out from the bathroom and into the corridor, heading for the source of the sound. He slammed the door open (and by doing so, unknowingly messed seriously with the structures of language, narratives, and the like), and saw Gengi staring at the dirty old mirror.

"Did you call me over here just for this? Your hair?" Johhny felt the anger building up inside him, sour like lemon juice, hot like lava, black like tar. He almost felt the taste in his mouth; a bitter, tangy taste, quite like blood.

"No, just… Just look at the mirror!" Gengi's face was white, and her voice had a slight tremble to it. Johnny looked at the mirror, but saw nothing apart from their reflections.

"Stop fooling around, you stupid, childish… Show yourself, dammit!" The girl snapped, scowling at the mirror. And now…

…A girl. The image of a girl. That was what he saw.

"See what I mean?"

"What? It's just a little girl. I mean, sure, it's odd alright, but not anything to scream like a banshee about."

"Look."

The girl was small, maybe five, maybe six, and she was wearing a light blue, ruffled dress. Her hair was either a very dark blonde or a very light brown, and it fell freely over her shoulders. Her eyes… Those were difficult. They were either very dark or very light; whenever he settled on one colour, they seemed to change, forcing him to change his opinion. She was barefoot, and her skin was quite pallid, but not unnaturally so.

"Well, it's a little girl in a blue dress. I can't find anyth-"

"Look", Gengi commanded him.

It was the smile, really. That smile changed everything. The girl's teeth were bright white and sharp, like shark's teeth.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Hell if I know", Gengi replied, sighing.

"Tell me all you know on the subject of this… thing", Johnny demanded.

"Well… It's a long story. You sure you wanna hear all of it?"

"Yes, yes, tell me already!"

"Okay. When I was little, I used to have a nightmare. It was about me, looking in the mirror, and I see _her_." Whom she indicated was obvious. "Anyway, she… uh… switches places with me, thusly putting me inside the mirror, and her outside, in the real world. Since she looks so much like me, she pretends to be me and wreaks all sorts of havoc. Then, when she's done with making a total mess, she switches back again, giving me all the blame. Schizo, no?"

"Not really, just creepy. Very creepy indeed…"

"Yes. Anyway, I used to have them when I was a kid, and I lost them after a while. And here's the big question: Why is she here again and how can I get rid of her?"

"I'll quote you on that one. 'Hell if I know' pretty much sums everything up into one nice little sentence."

"Then I'm out of luck, right? Fuck. D'you think she'll go away if I break the mirror?" She was clearly desperate.

"No idea, but I strongly advise against you breaking it. Mirrors are expensive, and I'm not in the mood for buying lots of expensive stuff which you've broken on purpose. So the answer is no, don't break it."

"Okay, okay, I won't. Anything else?" Her voice had manic happiness, sarcasm and cynicism boiling just below the surface, threatening to break out. Johnny saw droplets of sweat on her borrow. What the hell was going on here?

"Eh… Mirror girl, please get the hell out and stop being annoying and creepy. Is that OK?" Johnny smiled a huge, really unnerving smile at the mirror, and waved to the girl in it.

She didn't wave back. She just stood there, smiling her horrible smile.

"Shut up!" Gengi snarled, and then added, in a very weary voice, "Just… go away. I don't want you here, go _away_."

"Stop being so fucking impolite. Jeez, all you seem to do is to complain, complain, complain and complain some more. If I'm bothering you so much, then you won't have to feel my oh-so-tiring presence. Get outta my house, and do it now. God, if you hadn't _touched_ my knives, I could have been using them right now…" Words slipped off his tongue like hot asphalt, like coffee so hot it burnt your mouth and so bitter it rotted your teeth, like blood, like chunks of wriggling flesh. Anger. It felt quite good to just let those words spray out of his mouth, like machinegun bullets, like razors. Yeah, that was what he needed right now. Slicing someone up with razors, using that pretty little switchblade on someone, having some fun with a chainsaw. Yes. Fun.

Mmyep, that was one cute li'l chapter for ya. I hope you like it, if not, then review. If you liked it, review. If you feel like beating me to a bloody pulp for writing it, then review.

I own nothing except for Gengi and the mirror-girl, Jhonen owns everything cool in this story. Right now, I'm listening to Asbestos (you know, the cancerous material we all know and love dearly), a song by Foetus (a very talented industrial artist from Australia). The parts in brackets aren't part of the song's name. Buh-bye, guys and goils, see you soon.


	9. Chapter 9

_Oh, look how close he is to you. One tiny bite wouldn't hurt, would it? It would turn his skin the most lovely porcelain shade, and you'd feel all good again. Is that not what you want?_

"Shut up! Just… go away. I don't want you here, _go away_." Her voice sounded tired and bitter to her own ears, and that fucking girl'd better listen…

"Stop being so fucking impolite. Jeez, all you seem to do is to complain, complain, complain and complain some more. If I'm bothering you so much, then you won't have to feel my oh-so-tiring presence. Get outta my house, and do it now. God, if you hadn't _touched_ my knives, I could have been using them right now…" Oh, god. Oh, holy fucking Jesus and his epileptic monkey. She'd forgotten that Johnny wasn't hearing… _her_. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, what to do?

"I… uh… T-that wasn't to you, it was to her. I…" She felt the tears welling up in her eyes. Wait a minute, tears? She wasn't a crying person. What was happening to her?

"What?" Johnny turned his head around to face her so fast, she was sure he'd sprained every muscle in his neck. Nobody could do it that quick… well, obviously, _he_ could.

"I never… It wasn't… Nevermind, it was to her." Fuck. Why couldn't she articulate properly? Why did everything she said turn into some garbled mess? "F-forgive me", she sobbed. Oh, my lord. She was truly a grotesque ball of sappiness, wasn't she? Better crawl down under that fucking rock you came from, she told herself. No, she had to straighten up. Stop slouching, keep that smile, stop dragging your feet when you walk, now salute to the authorities. Be a good girl. Her mother's old exhortations filled her head.

"What I said before wasn't directed to you. I apologize most sincerely." Good. Her posture was good, she wasn't visibly frowning, and her boots were laced up properly. She truly looked hunky-dory, and her tears were hidden by that well-used mask of good manners.

"Hmm. I guess I'm sorry, then, but I really, really feel like using my knives. I'm in the basement if you need me", he said and walked off.

_Oh, look. You've really pissed him off, haven't you? I admire your social skills; everybody hates you, but they are too polite to say it to your face. Now, isn't it _good _that you have me? I know it. I know all of it, everything they think when they see you. Do you know why they hate you?_

"N-no…" All she managed was a pathetic whisper.

_They hate you because you are so ill-mannered. You spit when you talk, even a hobo has better hair than you, and your face… Let's not even go there. It takes all their will not to vomit when they see you, did you know that?_

"N-no, I didn't…" She had to look down to see that she actually wasn't wearing a tutu. This was just like the old times, the ballet times.

_They all hate you. It's usually one of the side effects of your… condition, but sadly, it has been like this forever. Now, don't frown. Be happy! Be sweet! Be everything they want, and more! You are able to do so much, yet you never even try. I'm ashamed of your lack of any kind of progress. If you never drink, how will you be able to quench the thirst?_

"I'm… No, shut up. They… Oh, god, I'm just so _thirsty_. I _need_ b-blood…" Her throat was dry, and every fibre of her body ached with longing for the sweet, sweet bodily fluid. "Wait. You're doing this, you bitch, aren't you?"

_Nooo, I'm not. Not at all. _A small giggle was heard from the girl. _The emotions you feel are entirely your own… _If you could have walked into the mirror and snuck up to the girl from behind, you'd see that she kept her arms behind her back for a reason: her fingers were firmly crossed.

Gengi frantically searched the room, and… there. It was small, yes, but still, it was there. A small glass shard had wedged into the sole of her left boot. She smirked at it, and then cut her left arm. Oh, the pain. It was so familiar, so comforting, and the smell… Oh, so lovely. In fact, it was so lovely, she had to taste it. And then taste a little bit more, and then some more.

* * *

The girl in the mirror laughed. Oh, how amusing wasn't that sight? Her dearest, dearest little subject, all passed out from the wound. Humans. They were so fragile, so weak, and best of all, so gullible. You could just tell them to, say, put some bread and honey out on the windowsill everyday (or something equally silly), and they'd do it. You could ask them to sacrifice a virgin every month, and they'd do it. Study until they got good grades? Sure. That was the special magic about humans: give them a stupid, pointless task, then provide them with an equally stupid reason for doing it (usually involving imaginary friends of various kinds), and they happily get to work immediately. How could something so stupid keep on living?

* * *

Easy, isn't it? Take knife in hand, put knife in person, block out the noise with songs (The Nutcracker, particularly), repeat until person is non-moving. Just keep on doing it until you feel that nice smell of meat juices, organs and blood. Then, you move on to the next. It feels good, doesn't it? Come on, say it. It feels good to do that to them. It feels good to see their faces, twisted beyond words. It feels good to hear their scream. There, there, good boy.

* * *

Now, here's another chapter. Yes, the mirror-girl is real. She's based on a recurring nightmare I had as a child (she just… stood there. And smiled. Jeez, that smile…). Jhonen owns, period. Also, he owns everything 'cept for Gengi and the cute li'l girl. Actually, that means that Jhonen owns you, too. Imagine what he might do to you if you displease him…

(Yes, I am really tired and in need of sleep. Also, I've been nostalgia-tripping out due to walking past my old school. Ah, memories of getting whipped and tied to a tree… Childhood is a beautiful thing.)


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Johnny stood in the strangely long line of customers at the 24-7. Ecstasy and joy was seen in their eyes, and some of the customers jumped up and down like excited children.

"Hey, what's all this about?" Johnny asked the person before him, a skinny girl with goggles scooted up on her forehead.

"Don't you _know_?! Oh my ghawd, it's _the_ thing! C'mon, you been living in a cave for the past ten years or what?" The girl cocked one perfectly plucked, pierced eyebrow at him.

"Uh… Please, just tell me what this is all about."

"Jeez, you're one of those hackers, right? How are the Dragons an' Demons going, huh? Stay away from that Flash Cola, your brain's gonna fry and your skin could use some of that thing they call sun every once in a while…"

Johnny had to grit his teeth until he tasted blood and clench his fists until he had small crescents inside his palms to not pull out his knives and make the process short with her.

"I am not a hacker, and I do not play Dragons and Demons. Please, just tell me what the hell this is all about and leave me alone."

"Hey, I was only being nice, no need to flip…" The girl demonstratively turned her back on him and put her nose high up in the air.

"Oh well", Johnny muttered to himself, "I'll find out soon, no need to lose my calm… My carefully preserved calm…"

The line went shorter with time, and so did Johnny's patience. The girl was now squawking on her cell phone about how awesome and epic it would be.

"And I'll be all 'Aww shiiit!!' when I'm at the cash register, imagine the total cool-o-rama it'd be! Yeah!"

Finally, the girl reached the end of the line. She jumped and giggled so much, Johnny had to turn his back on her to not get one of her sharp elbows poked in the eye. Finally, she walked out from the store.

"Tell me what this is all about!"

The clerk looked up from his Pathetic Boy issue.

"Firearms'n'Flowers has just released a new record, and Massive Food, Inc. said that they'd give everyone a free FizWiz if they released it this year, so… yeah. That's what everybody are so damn jumped up about." The clerk sounded like he was really fed up with people.

"Uh… Okay. May I have one? Do you have any Cherry ones left?"

"Oh, they only give out their new flavour, 'Super Duper Pineapple'." The clerk picked up his magazine again.

"'Super Duper Pineapple'? Is it any good?" Johnny eyed the bleary-eyed clerk with great suspicion.

"How should I know? I've been here since 9 in the goddamn morning; I only sell the shit."

The clerk rubbed his eyes and kept reading.

"Well, I'll take one Pineapple FizWiz, then." The exchange of money for soda was made, and Johnny walked out of the store with a bit lesser money but with 100 % more FizWiz than before. He looked at the bottle, and saw that the garish label said 'Super Duper Painapple!!' in big, yellow and purple letters.

"Painapple?" He raised one eyebrow, and proceeded to walk home. He found Gengi lying on the sofa, soundly asleep. She groaned a bit, rubbed her eyes and then sat up.

"Oh yeah, there you are. I was starting to wonder, you know…"

"Well, I've got something for you."

"Ooh! What is it?" Her eyes were glittering like an excited child's now.

"Here", he simply said and gave her the soda bottle.

"Huh? Painapple FizWiz? Where'd you get this from?" She eyed the label with great suspicion etched into her very features. "I've never seen this before…"

"It's a new flavour, wanna have a taste?"

"Are you sure it's safe to drink something called 'Painapple'? …Wait, the label's multicoloured, I'm safe." She took a swig from the bottle. Johnny leaned forward, interested in her reaction. However, she didn't turn strangely coloured, swell up, get ugly little blisters all over herself, or any other interesting reactions.

"Hmm. Tastes weird, but not bad. Here, have some." She offered the bottle to Johnny.

"What did you mean with that 'multicoloured label, wheee, I'm safe' stuff?"

"You don't know Paranoia? I was referring to that."

"Of course I know paranoia, what did you expect from a horrendously insane, homicidal lunatic?"

"I wasn't talking about paranoia, I was talking about Paranoia!"

"What the hell was in that Painapple beverage? Stop making no sense and start making sense!"

"I'm talking about Paranoia with a capital P, not the illness!"

"Okay, well, since your brain doesn't seem too horribly damaged, maybe, just maybe, I'll try some." Johnny carefully let a drop of the bright neon green liquid fall between his lips. The soda tasted quite tangy, a bit like fruit flavoured Gummy Piglets, and with lots of vitamin B added to the curious blend. However, nothing out of the ordinary happened. That is, until Gengi opened her mouth…

"I've been thinking over my life, Johnny. I've decided to start high school."

* * *

Author's Notes: Paranoia with a capital P is a tabletop role-playing game which is really funny. I recommend it to everyone.

I am very, very, very sorry for not updating in such a long time, but life got in the way.

See you later, my dear read-piggies.

I own nothing escept Gengi and some other stuff. Everything cool belongs to mr Vasquez, who's also the goalie in Jesus's soccer team.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Johnny just stood there. What else could he (or anyone else) have done when had such horrifying, non-sequiteur news delivered to him?

"So… You're going to high school, yes?"

"Yes, I am. I've decided that—"

"Oh no, oh no, don't say it! You've accepted the Lord as your saviour and will go to church tomorrow, asking them to burn your heathen heart while it's still in your chest by massive napalm ingestion. Or, even better, you've changed your world view when shooting up everything you found in my basement and is now about to start a tantric sex cult? Or maybe, you've decided to indulge in your bizarre appetite for blood and are about to rip my chest cavity open and eat my heart? Which one is it? Which one?!" Sometimes, Gengi noted a strange gleam in Johnny's eyes, the kind of gleam that meant either an internal conflict or a tiny short-circuit in his brain. Now, it was all gleam and no eyes.

"No, what I was supposed to say was that if I just get away from that fucking mirror, everything's gonna be all right. And in school, I'll be very, very far away from it. And from her. And from all of the hideous stuff you keep in your basement for no apparent reason at all."

"How do you know about my basement? And why are you acclaiming me of keeping them there for no reason? If you had lived my life, you'd have found it to be quite reasonable for me to keep them there and how's going to the hideous cesspool of stupidity, redundancy and futility knows as High School going to help with anything at all?"

"Well, I'll get away from the mirror and maybe, I'll get me an education, too."

"Tell me. How did your principles change so quickly? You said yourself that school was a pointless waste of time as it teaches children only to become mindless obeyors of the authorities…"

"Yes, but having a psycho little girl in a mirror that speaks to you makes you change real quickly. Also, I'm a teenager. We're known for our mercurial minds."

"You're a teenager? How old are you?"

"I'm turning fourteen next year. And may I inquire about your age, or is that too close for comfort?"

"Er… Actually, I'm not sure about my age. It's my memory, you see. It's all blurry and sometimes blanked out, like someone censors it before I'm able to watch it. Well, I know that the human memory is not like a movie, but maybe you'll understand what I mean."

"I guess I do. Well, you look like you're about twenty-five. And… Uh… What do you think of my idea?" She tried to force a smile. Most people would have been brought to a nice, white room with padded walls after a sight like that, but Johnny was hardened. He'd seen much worse and didn't move an inch.

"I think it's an awful idea, but I can't control you, so you're free to do as you wish." He unclenched his fists and sighed an abyssal sigh.

"Okay, it's very nice of you to let me be free, you know. I greatly appreciate that." With this, Gengi walked off to the kitchen.

"Hey, when are you planning to start? Today's Saturday…" Johnny called after her as she went. He slumped down on the couch, feeling one of the springs poking him in the back.

"Just what shall I do now?" His voice was thoughtful, mournful perhaps. "Nailbunny, stop being silly and show your beautifully preserved, worm-ridden, agony filled face. I need your advice here, now you give me it." As expected, the dead rodent didn't reply. Johnny got up from the couch and started rummaging through every possible place in the room where a business card might be nestled. This took a while, since something business card-sized could be virtually anywhere. After a curse-filled, frustratingly long while of looking, he found the business card. It was used as a bookmark in 'The Diamond Age'.

"Okay, why the hell did I use it as a fucking book mark?" Johnny carefully slipped the business card out and replaced it with a scrap piece of paper. "Ah well", he shrugged, "the ways of me truly are incomprehensible."

He walked to the kitchen, and saw Gengi stirring in a pot of boiling water. A most peculiar smell emitted from the pot.

"What is that?" He made a vague gesture towards the stove.

"Oh, this? I call it 'Experiment Tea'." She smirked. "It's made from whatever spices I found in your kitchen, I'll strain it before drinking, of course."

"Hmm. It smells… interesting. Very spicy."

"Um… You drink tea, right?" The ghost of a nervous smile played around the corners of her mouth.

"Oh, not often, but sometimes I do." He wasn't sure if that was a lie or only half a lie, since he couldn't remember any time he'd ever had some tea. Oh well, his mind probably played tricks on him.. Just what had she put in there? It was like an entire spice bazaar exploding in his nostrils. "Why 'Experiment Tea'?"

"'Cuz it's not actual tea leaves in there, and it probably tastes like the curry cooked by an idiot child with no sense of taste or smell would. Well, like the curry, not like the child." She giggled at her own exceptionally lame joke.

"Er… You just keep doing whatever it is that you're doing, and I'll be back in a minute."

"Hey, wait! 'S just done! If you could just lend me a piece of cloth, I'll strain it, too."

Johnny just stared at her. _This is it, _he thought. _She's descended all the way into sprawling insanity. All hope is lost, I guess._

"A piece of cloth? How could you possibly strain tea with a piece of friggin' cloth?"

"Oh, it's easy. I'll show you, just bring me a piece of cloth, about three inches bigger than the pot itself."

"All right", Johnny replied and went down to the basement. In the wonderful machine that combined an iron maiden with a guillotine he found a surprisingly clean scarf on a corpse. He promptly took the scarf and gave it to Gengi.

"This is the perfect size, thank you!" Her voice was filled with glee. She fetched a jug from the cupboard, put the scarf on the pot, and then poured the liquid through the cloth to the jug.

"Done, have a taste, 'kay?"

Johnny looked at the contents of the jug. It was coloured a yellowish golden hue. "Hmm. Well, we better have this proper, so… Let's go to the living-room and have tea there."

They sat down, and Gengi poured the strange thing into two chipped cups she'd found.

"It tastes… interesting", Johnny finally said after a long, awkward silence.

"No, it doesn't. It tastes horrible, but you're too polite to say it. Isn't that how it _really_ is?" She peered at him through her dirty glasses, a slight smile gracing her pallid face.

"Well, to be honest, it isn't tasty at all. It tastes like someone dropped the entire spice cabinet into the pot, and decided to actually drink it. You know, you should pour it into little bottles, label them 'Drink Me' and sell it to _Alice in Wonderland _fans."

"I should? Well, I'd be able to make a huge lot of money if I sold this junk. Watch out so you won't shrink!"

"Where did you find the spices for this? I haven't got any…"

"Well, since when did you look through your kitchen? I found this really cute little rack with little glass jars with spices in it. Looked like something from, say, the twenties…"

"Hey, how the hell can you find exactly what you need in my kitchen, while I can't? It's really vexing me."

"Well, maybe your kitchen likes me. Or something, I find that as bizarre as you do. But it's quite convenient, isn't it?" The same almost-smile.

"Yes, but it would be far more convenient if I could find what I wanted… Anyway, I'm going to see my doctor, you wanna tag along?"

"Uh… Sure. But first, I'd like you to promise to never, ever mention this… pseudo-beverage to anyone. Never ever. Got it?"

Johnny wowed to never tell anyone about the pseudo-tea, and they drove to the Defective Head Meat Institute.

"Why do you want to tag along? I suspect it's not going to be especially interesting…"

"Oh, I'm only interested in the walls", the girl replied with a smug smile. Johnny pondered what she meant during the drive. She couldn't have found out about The Thing Beyond The Wall, could she? Then again, she had been snooping around in his basement, so…

The odd duo sat down in the waiting room, painted in the universal hue known as 'Waiting Room Green', a kind of pale green that's also seen in most classrooms. There were shabby couches, uncomfortable chairs and so-well-read-they're-falling-to-pieces magazines littering the place. Gengi didn't seem to be very interested in the walls, though.

"I'd like to see… er… Doctor Theresa Redlum, please", Johnny told the lady in the booth as he read from the business card.

"Sure, just go through that there corridor, then to the right, an' then it's left, up the stairs an' her office's in the first orange door you'll find. Got it?"

Johnny, with Gengi in tow, followed the way as given by the booth lady.

"Look at the walls! Just… look at them!"

"What's so special about them? They're just walls…"

"No, look at their colour."

Johnny did just this, and saw nothing more than a yellowish hue.

"No, look at it _for real_", Gengi commanded.

"What am I supposed to look at?" Johnny sneered. "It's just yellow fucking walls, nothing more."

"At every hospital I've ever been to, the walls have been painted in this very shade of yellow."

"So?"

At last, they reached the orange door. Johnny told Gengi to wait outside as he stepped into the doctor's office.

"Oh, hello", a woman sitting behind a desk said. She wore oval glasses very similar to Gengi's, and she wore a white lab coat. Her hair was short, dark and had a vague, blue sheen to it.

"The sleep study person recommended you. He said that you knew a lot about sleep, dreams and such things."

"Yes. Yes, I do. Have a seat. So, is there anything troubling you?"

"Where to start?" Johnny sighed, and stared at the ceiling. "Well, for example, there's this girl living with me. She's seeing a really creepy little girl in the mirror."

"Okay, may I see this girl, too?" Dr. Redlum's voice was calm and she sounded like she heard about things like these every day.

"Sure, she's outside. I'll go get her, if it's okay with you."

"Sure, go ahead." The doctor just nodded towards the door.

"Hey, Gengi!" Johnny yelled.

"Yeah, what?" came the answer from the far end of the corridor.

"Get here and do it quickly!"

The girl strolled towards her friend's voice. Johnny ushered her into the office without touching her at all. It truly is remarkable what body language can do.

"So… This is the girl that's living with me."

"Hi, I'm Gengi. Nice hair. I dig the glasses, too."

"Hi, I'm Dr. Redlum." The woman waved slightly. "So, Gengi, tell me about it."

"Tel you about what?" The girl glared at Johnny. "Just what the hell have you told her?"

"There's no need to get angry. Your friend here has only told me that you see a girl in the mirror. Is that girl yourself?"

"No, she most definitely is not. She's… Oh, why am I even telling you this? Talk to Johnny instead…"

"Very well then. Johnny, what's bothering you?"

"Um… Have you read my files? The sleep studies evoked great interest. I… I do not sleep much, at my most once every two weeks or so. And I…" He stopped for a while, thinking about how to phrase it. _Well, just say it_, he thought. _What are you afraid of anyway? _Sure, this was just a mental pep talk, but still… There was something about the doctor, something quite like déjà vu. "Yes, I hear voices. Or heard, that is. They were inside my head, but I still knew that the voices belonged to objects outside of my head."

"Oh, do keep on talking; I'll just make some notes here."

"Anyway, these voices. There were three different voices. Two of them were called the Doughboys; they looked like Billshury Doughboys from hell. One told me how horrible everything was, and that I was better of as a decaying corpse, since there could never be any hope and no good things would ever happen in a world like this. The other one told me that I was better off with everybody else dead, and the bloodier, the better. He told me not to think much about of what I was doing, but to just do it and stop asking questions. The third one, Nailbunny, was actually nice. I didn't mind him at all. He told me not to listen to the Doughboys, and to try to preserve the last scraps of sanity within this cranium. Nailbunny was… I think he was me, really. You know when you have an internal conversation with yourself? Nailbunny was that other end. After some really crazy stuff happened, a Burger Boy named Reverend M.E.A.T (he did not pronounce the punctuation) appeared. He wanted me to give in to all of my animal urges. Kinda like Mr. Eff, but meatier and disgusting in loads of more levels than Eff could ever hope to be. He was simply horrendous, but he eventually disappeared—"

"Wait, who's this Mr. Eff?"

"He's the manic side of the Doughboys, one might put it. Now, with the Reverend gone and the Doughboys gone, it felt good to have Nailbunny on my side, but he disappeared too. Now, let's change the subject, shall we? Gengi, talk your heart out."

"Er… What am I supposed to say? I'm freaking crazy, I see weird shit, everything is way nuttier than it should be and poor Johnny's been dragged into this mess because of me."

"Would you care to give me some details? 'Way nutty' might work if you're telling a friend, but I am a doctor and need a bit more than that."

"Well, for instance, a girl from a recurring nightmare I had when I was small has shown up in the mirror, I tried to kill myself and just before I passed out, someone was singing the Eraserhead song even though I was alone in the room… Is that enough details?"

"So… You tried to kill yourself?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. Everything was just… too much. I was weak. Couldn't handle it, so I took the shortcut rather than walking the long, hard road o' life. Now, I passed out from blood loss, and… That's where it went downhill. A horrible girl's been pestering me from _inside of a mirror, _I'm in a _mental hospital_ right now, I know Johnny's past… The word 'downhill' is just not enough to convey how wrong everything has turned."

"Hmm, this is all very… interesting."

"And what is that supposed to mean? Judging by this conversation, Johnny's going to get locked up in a padded cell, and I'm going to get enough meds to kill a blue whale."

"No, that's not how it's going to happen. I know the DHMI. All I have to do is to take part in a boring statistical research thing, while you're going to get locked up with some horrible kid who just can't stop screaming. _That's_ how it's going to be."

"No, no, no! We do not do those kinds of things here at the DHMI! We'll, uh, talk about it and… see what we can do about the situation." An obviously fake smile showed on Dr. Redlum's face.

"Talk about it? Are you serious? So, let's sit down and have a little talk, then. What the fuck's that supposed to solve?" Obvious disbelief coloured Gengi's voice.

"Enough of this, I'm leaving. I can't stand hearing you two bickering anymore." Johnny turned away and walked straight to the door.

"Wait! Stop it! Don't you dare run away like a scared little kid!" Anger filled the doctor's voice, and a horrible smile crept across her face as the looked at each of the three syringes in her breast pocket. She murmured something inaudible, perhaps to herself, perhaps to the syringes. One was filled with a blue fluid, one with something red, and one with something yellow.

Johnny flashed his teeth at her, and ran away. Gengi noticed how he moved; like an insect. Jerky, twitchy, but still with a strange sort of grace. He was very fast, too. She wondered how he had gotten so very fast, but then let that train of thought crash into a mental mountain of primal fear and ran away.

"Hey, get back here!" Dr. T. Redlum was roaring now, and it felt great. Oh, how wonderful it felt to let that huge, horrible, massive amount of suppressed rage out! Now, she was just yelling incoherently at the fake rubber plant at her desk. It was there, the plastic it was made of was a hideous hue of green, and it didn't mind getting yelled at. After a while, she stopped to catch her breath and realized what she was doing. She felt the blood rushing to her face and she realized that this might cost her job. She wondered if the Threes had noticed, and what exactly they would do to her. After a while of pondering, she wished her brain wasn't that imaginative. She shook her head, crossed her arms and decided this would be a good time for a coffee break. The coffee breaks were limited to three per day, and you were allowed to pool them (as in not taking any for two days and then end up with six breaks on the third day). However, you couldn't pool breaks more than once a month. Also, you had to take the small pills that the Authorities gave you (this was what they called themselves. No bosses, only various grades of Authority). One day, Dr. Redlum had forgotten to take the last of the three pills. She was sent to the Authority, where she had about two life's worth of being yelled at. She'd just felt a bit funny after not eating it, so why was it such a big deal? She shrugged it off and walked out to the coffee machine. After devouring (more like 'drinking really fast and trying not to think of the aftertaste', but it's just such a nice word. Also, long words make you look smart) the coffee, she went back to her office. When she looked at the single blue pill she hadn't eaten, she noticed that it looked like a jelly bean. She just sighed, and started doing that paper work she'd been procrastinating about for so long.

"Okay, Gengi, the next time I'm gonna do something, I won't bring you." Johnny gave the girl a glare that would have caused plants to instantly wither and small animals to die.

"Why not? It was actually a hospital, mind you…"

"That's no excuse. If you could stop being fucking embarrassing, I might, and I repeat: _might_ spend time with you in public."

"C'mon! I was at a mental hospital, with some creepy-as-hell lady asking me personal stuff! What could I have done?"

"Just leave me alone, I'm not at all in the mood for talking to you right now." Johnny frowned and walked off in a really fast pace. He felt like destroying something right now, so he headed to the basement.

"You know what? That's totally the wrong hairstyle for you. You look like shit…" These encouraging words came from a plump woman with what looked like three jars of Sun-less Tan smeared onto her face.

"What did you say?!"

"I said the truth, and only the truth: You. Look. Like. Shit. Get it?"

"Okay, fortunately for you, that's exactly the answer I hoped to hear, since it justifies me doing what I plan to do to you."

"Okay, what do you plan to do to me then, Mr. Looks-like-shit?"

"Well, you'll see. It's going to be a great load of fun, and… You'll see." He smirked at the woman and then proceeded to do horrible things to her. These things involved a jar filled with worms, a chainsaw and four planks. Also, they were so horrifying the letters used to describe the event got scared and ran away.

"Well, that was a bit of a relief. However, I need some more, since I still feel like burning something whenever I think of Gengi", Johnny said to himself and whoever decided to listen. "…Wait. What am I doing? I'm sane! A sane person shouldn't do things such as these!" He looked down at his begloved hands, still spattered with blood and some worm innards. The supposedly sane man sighed and went up to the bathroom to wash.

Author's Notes: Well, that was quite a change, wasn't it? Also, I own nothing but Gengi. JV is a pretty cool guy, he owns most characters and doesn't afraid of anything.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Gengi sat in her room, staring at the mirror.

_Stop staring at me like that, it's rude._

"I'll stare as much as I want, thank you", she replied, rather glumly.

_No, you won't. Don't you remember that I'm in charge now? Also, was that little… episode at the hospital really worth it? All for the sake of drama?_

"You're not in charge of me. Will you change the fucking subject, or should I wait another hundred years before you stop nagging?" She snarled at the un-reflection, kicking at the bookshelf as to give her words more power.

_Do you remember the event on the couch? When I showed you that I am far more powerful than you can possibly imagine?_

"Yes, yes, the horrible pain and all that, I remember. Thing is, it doesn't prove anything. You aren't more powerful than I can possibly imagine, all you seem capable of doing is to make me throw a hissy fit, and the girls at _school_ did it more skilfully than you." Gengi's voice was filled with loathing when she said the word 'school'.

_Oh, now you're trying to be cocky. How cool and edgy of you. Gothic, even._

"Shut up! It's not true! Nothing you say is true!" She glared at the girl in the mirror.

_Oh, I'm afraid you've missed the point. Everything I say is true. Doesn't it feel good to have somebody who helps you see the things you're too blind to see by yourself? Isn't it good to have an eye-opener to aid you?_

"Star light, star bright, get this abomination the fuck out", Gengi muttered.

Johnny hummed to himself as he washed his hands. He quietly hummed The Waltz of the Flowers, and stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, not really seeing it.

"Sane. I'm sane. I won't kill anyone ever again. I will start drawing again, I'll practice and practice until I get as good as I used to be, whatever that's supposed to mean." He thought he heard somebody whisper something, but brushed it off as the buzzing and humming of the water pipes. "Yes, of course I'll start making art again. Might as well start right now", he said and walked to the living-room to get his drawing utensils. As he sat in the couch, however, he found his mind as blank as the piece of paper that lay before him. He picked up the pencil.

"This… This is nothing. I can't do it." He'd tried to draw a person, but had only gotten as far to sketch the oval shape to build the face on. It was all empty; nothing would come out of his usually imaginative head. "It's just… No. I can't do it. Not anymore", he droned to himself, and felt the tears welling up in his eyes. He cursed at himself, why was he crying? This wasn't something to cry about. "…Maybe, I'll never be able to do it. Never again. Maybe, this is what sanity really is. Emptiness, a void of internal voices as well as inspiration. If that's the case, I'd rather be an artistic lunatic than a sane man with no grasp of such things. Also, why am I talking to myself? Nobody's listening, anyway…"

Gengi shot death glares at the mirror girl, who had started to sing all the songs she knew Gengi hated. Right now, she was singing Barbie Girl.

"Shut the fuck up", the bespectacled of the duo growled.

_Why should I? _

"Because if you don't, I'll smash your mirror", she replied, her voice suddenly calm and happy. "These are steel tips, you know…" She gestured towards her boots.

_No, you wouldn't do that. Not to me._

"Oh, yes, I would. One more word of Barbie Girl, and I'll smash it until the remaining pieces are smaller than dust particles."

_You're gonna like this, it's really neat_, the girl said and grinned even wider.

Gengi felt how extremely thirsty she was, something she hadn't noticed before. She knew that water wouldn't quench the thirst that ravaged her throat; what she needed was blood, and it better be quick. She felt her mouth form words she hadn't decided to say.

"Johnny, could you get here quick? I need… blood!"

He stepped into the room, clearly not amused.

"Yes? What is it?" He snapped, glowering at the mirror.

"I need blood. Please, give it to me…" To her own ears, her voice sounded strange, like it wasn't her own.

"Hmm. What would happen if I wouldn't give you blood? Just a hypothetical question, of course…"

"Johnny", she hissed, "if you won't give me blood I will bury my teeth in your neck and drain you of all your delicious, scarlet life juice. I will leave you to rot in this room, and I will tell the police what's in your basement. I'll make sure your death looks like a suicide, and nobody will suspect me."

"Okay, okay, just wait a minute…" Johnny grumbled and walked off.

"You're horrible! I'd never do that to him! What the fuck are you doing to me?!"

_Do you understand that I am in full control of you? I can make you talk, I can make you walk, and I can make sure you'll always obey me._

"Well, if you're capable of doing such things, why won't you stop annoying me and just fucking do it already?"

_Watching your feeble, pathetic mind struggle and squirm as I surround it from every corner is really amusing. You need to lose some weight, you know. Nobody's going to like you if you look this podgy._

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" The girl covered her ears and shut her eyes, desperately trying to shut the voice out.

Johnny entered the room, holding a chipped mug filled with red liquid.

"Gimme!" Again, her voice sounded alien. She stretched for the mug and downed the contents in less than two seconds.

"Uh… I'll just sit and contemplate my sanity some more. Have fun", Johnny said and quickly walked out of the room.

"Whatever it is that you're doing, stop doing it!" Gengi threw the mug at the laughing un-reflection, but missed. The mug hit the wall a couple inches beside the mirror, and landed on the floor completely undamaged.

_What a powerful attack. It really threatened me. Scared me, too. I thought you could do better…_

"I… I don't need you. Go the hell away; you're annoying me so much I might spontaneously catch fire just from looking at your face." Gengi lay down on the bed, and burrowed her face deep in the pillow.

­

Dr. Redlum had the plan perfectly thought out. She would 'accidentally' let the pill box slip into her purse, and then walk out to the parking lot to get some fresh air (she would make sure to do this on a coffee break). At the parking lot, she'd push three pills out from the blister pack and put three blue jelly beans there instead. Then, she'd walk back to her office and behave as normal, but now unaffected by the pills. The reason she used the parking lot was because there were no Threes there. Threes were what the employees called the secret cameras and other surveillance appliances; every third thing was tapped, for example, every third motivational poster in the coffee room. This knowledge was passed on to the new employees, and it was said that someone named Kilroy figured this out a long time ago, but nobody knew what had happened with him.

"Has she always been this crazy for blood?" Johnny asked. "… Wait, Doughbunny, you're just pretending not to listen and all that crap, but I'll talk to you anyway." He cracked his knuckles and started doodling on the paper while talking to his unseen and unheard friend. "So, what am I to do? Sane, new brain, my house guest's gone quite a bit insane. Heh, that rhymed. Dough… er… Nailbunny, please talk to me. It feels so strange now, like I've somehow pressed the 'mute' button on reality. Also, what the hell's up with my sudden lack of creativity? When I actually feel like drawing, I can't." Looking down on the paper, he saw that there were shapes on it. The shapes intersected each other, and it looked really weird and nothing like anything he'd ever seen before. The strange doodles looked like some sort of flowing writing, but he couldn't place what language it was. Arabic, maybe?

"Okay, this is weird", he muttered and squinted at the curious doodles. "Inspiration, my ass. This is not inspiration, this is sleep-drawing. With a shitty old pencil on a ratty old paper. I hope that my dear house guest's finished, and that she won't make reality of her threats much too soon." He paused, looking around the room. "Why am I speaking like this? Like someone is listening and I had to explain everything to this unseen person, like I'm referring some movie he hasn't seen. That movie isn't even good, it's complete shit. A plot worthy of Ed Wood, dialogue worse than anything Wood would ever write, and the camera man's probably blind or something…" He leaned back, putting one leg across the other. "No, really. This is the worst fucking movie ever, just look at the editing! There are no special effects at all, and… Well, whoever listening, this is completely shit, and if you wish to keep your sanity intact, don't watch it. Ever." He stretched out, and walked to Gengi's room, tired of reviewing a metaphorical movie to no one.

"Hi. I figured that something is really fucked up in my head", the girl said, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth, "so why not check it out?"

"What do you mean, check it out?" He raised both eyebrows at her.

"You know, take a nice li'l trip into it. My head, that is."

Author's Notes: Why, guys, that was pretty interesting! I bet you all wanna know what happens next, huh?

…you wanna know, right? Right?

As usual, Das Vasquez owns everything cool.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

"Take a trip to your head? How the fuck's that going to work?" Johnny just stared at his house mate. She was definitely way spottier than he had thought when meeting her for the first time…

"Wait a minute, I'll just get some… er… tools and explain." She smirked at him, and walked off. Johnny glowered at the mirror, but did not receive any sort of response. When the girl got back, she carried a knife, two whiskey glasses (Johnny had no idea where she'd got them, since he didn't drink), a packet of sugar, some curry and a hand-written note.

"Okay, explain."

"Right", she said. "I'm going to make a small cut in my head, since that's the source of the problem. I'll collect the blood in these two glasses. Then, since I'm a girl, I'll take sugar, spice and everything nice and mix it with the blood."

"This is completely crazy, but make sure you won't hurt yourself…"

"Okiedokie!" Gengi cut into her forehead and let the blood drizzle down into the two glasses. Then, she poured some curry and sugar into them, ripped the note (it said 'Everything nice' in a messy hand) in tiny pieces and poured it into the glasses, too. Then, she mixed it all until it was an even blend and gave a glass to Johnny.

"Um… Firstly, this is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. Secondly, it's completely fucking batshit insane. Thirdly, there is no chance in hell that this is going to work."

"C'mon, don't be silly", the teenager said. "Cheers!" She winked and clinked her glass against his.

Johnny looked down at the hideous beverage, pure disgust the only emotion in his face. Even the smell nauseated him, and he almost had to retch just from the thought of actually drinking it. "I want you to be absolutely sure that when this crap is over, you'll owe me one year's worth of cleaning and cooking. Also, you may never, ever ask me to do anything like this again. If you break your promise, I'll ignore my principle of not killing kids and slit your throat. Got it?"

"Yeah, sure. Ten years' worth of household work, no more blood drinking or any other shit, and if I don't you'll slit my throat. Drink it." She made the Klingon salute and chugged the bodily fluid mixture down.

Johnny managed to swallow the bizarre blend, and…

* * *

Dr. Redlum felt… weird. She couldn't really concentrate on her work, and she got goose bumps whenever someone entered her office without knocking first, and most people didn't knock before entering.

"Oh god", she whispered when she thought of that guy who'd been visiting her earlier… what was his name? "Johnny", she whispered, "Johnny is your name. Oh god…" Memories. Images. A dirty old basement; a skinny guy with black clothes and a knife in hand.; a guy screaming; tentacles; blood; pain; fear; hate; guilt; nails; a human head, cracked open; mad laughter; bloody flesh; the stench of decay… The memories of one night to remember struck her in the head like a massive chunk of concrete. And at the heart of it all was the face of the skinny, knife wielding man; Johnny C. "This… this can't be real", she told herself. "This didn't happen. It was just a bad dream, a nightmare, some stupid horror movie…" But no matter how much she rationalized, that nagging feeling in her head that told her it was true wouldn't go away. "Shit", she muttered. "Maybe it did happen. Maybe I was there. Maybe…" The doctor found that she was trembling, and tried to stop it, but she couldn't.

"Okay, calm down, calm down…" she told herself. "It happened, but I'm fine, right? I'm fine. Absolutely fine." The lie rang false since her legs were trembling, her head was swimming and she had a strange lump in her throat. She wasn't fine, not fine at all. In that moment, she realized what the little blue pills were for. They weren't supposed to make you forget or lose your personality or anything like that; life wasn't a movie. They were supposed to help you concentrate, to make sure you wouldn't dwell too much on the past, to make sure you put all your thoughts into your patients and what to do for them. Tess R. opened the box and ate three blue pills.

* * *

…_this is strange too strange weirder than heaven weirder than hell tastes like purple looks like crunchy smells like screaming feels like paisley…_

…He laid on his back, sprawled out on… grass. Yes, he was lying on his back, looking up into a reddish sky.

"Told you it would work", a voice behind him chirped. He rolled over and saw that it was Gengi, lying on her stomach.

"What happened? Where are we? What the fuck's going on?" Johnny sat up and gave the girl a truly devastating glare.

"Um… My head-thing worked, we're… inside my head, I guess, and… That's it. If you wanna know something more, we have to take a look at this place." The both of them got up, and they saw that they were in a forest glen. Bright green grass, around ankle height, covered the place. There was a path in front of them, and the sun was setting, washing everything in crimsons and scarlets.

"Let's just walk, shall we? I mean, we won't find out anything if we just stand here all day, will we?" Gengi said this to Johnny, who was currently spitting and almost vomiting in a nearby bush.

"Wait… Ughh… That taste just won't go away! Fuck you! I really, really need to get clean", the man snapped. "Clean, I need clean, yes, clean…" he droned to himself.

"D'you see any river or brook or something here? Well, let's get going and maybe we'll find one!" The girl gesticulated as she yelled at him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Johnny muttered as he walked up to her.

The odd duo started walking down the path, facing the setting sun.

"You know, in 'Hansel and Gretel', they tear bread apart to mark out the way they've taken. No need for bread crumbs, I've got head blood!" This statement was true, as blood dripped from Gengi's head wound and marked their way.

"Shut. Up. I'm not in a talking mood", Johnny hissed.

The path had a thick forest of red-leaved trees on both sides of it, and it seemed to go on forever. Pebbles found their way into our heroes' boots, like it always does if one walks on a dirt path.

"This head of yours is larger than I thought", Johnny said and thusly broke the silence that had encapsulated them for so long. "Also, it's considerably less imaginative."

"Well, you have to walk somewhere if you wanna get somewhere", the girl replied. "But I wonder why these are maples? In Sweden, we only had these awful pine forests everywhere…" (_AN: This is a slight lie. There are leaf forests in Sweden, but not many._)

"How should I know?"

After a great deal of walking, they found a fork in the path.

"Great", Johnny said. "Just great." He sat down, cross-legged, on the ground. "Which one do we take?" He gestured towards the two forks; one led to the left, one to the right.

"Um… I suggest we'll take the right one, since left's 'sinistra' in Latin, and I'm not in the mood for a sinister path."

"You know Latin?" Johnny cocked his head and squinted at her.

"Yes. A little. Anyway, follow the dirty shit road, I guess", the girl said and started walking. "Hey, isn't that running water? We'll totally take the right one; I'm dying for something to drink."

Johnny got up and followed her, listening intensely. "Yeah… That's definitely running water. Let's walk."

They walked down the right fork, and the sound of running water grew louder for every step they took. The source of the sound was a beautiful brook, perfectly clear water in a silvery stream.

"Johnny, look! It's amazing!" Gengi's voice was filled with glee.

"Nice", he commented. "Mind if I drink first? I really, really, really need to make this hideous taste in my mouth go away…" Johnny sat down on his knees and drank from the brook. Water had never tasted as good as that. It was like drinking silver, like drinking liquid diamonds. It tasted of minerals, ice, freshness and it slid down his throat like a caress.

"My turn", Gengi exclaimed and kneeled. She drank like an animal, simply dipping her head in the water and gulping down mouthfuls of it as fast as she could. Johnny looked at her with disgust. It simply looked awful to drink anything like that, but he understood her. The water tasted so good, he'd had to use all his self control to not act like she did.

"That was delicious", the girl said and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "So, are we ready to continue?"

"Go ahead", Johnny said. "I'll wait here until you're done with curing your head."

"So you think this is a good place to wait? It isn't. Listen."

"What's wrong with it? It's nice, quiet; I've got fresh water…"

"Exactly my point. Do you hear any birds singing? Any insects? Any wind, rustling in the leaves? It's too quiet, too still. I don't like it and I don't trust it." She crossed her arms and scowled.

"Okay, okay, I'll come with you", he muttered.

They walked and walked. Johnny felt a little bit sad for leaving the brook; it was such a nice place.

"Will that sun ever set? It's been like that since we got here!"

"Hey, you're right!" The girl squinted at the sky. "Something's really fishy about this place; I'd like to get outta this goddamn forest as fast as possible!" With that, she stopped walking and started marching. She stopped moving her arms at all and turned casual steps into stomping, and the result could only be described as marching. Johnny just took a bit longer steps. They stopped for a couple of minutes to pour the pebbles out of their shoes, but that was it.

"Whoa! D'you see that?" Gengi exclaimed.

"See what? Is there anything at all to see, apart from that bloody sun and this horrible forest?"

"I think I saw a house somewhere, just past this hill", Gengi said, quite thankful to find a hill in the strange, flat landscape. "Actually, it's pretty good that there actually is a hill. I thought this flat crap would go on forever…"

"A house? Where? Hurry up; I'd like to rest the bleeding stumps of flesh that's left of my feet. These pebbles are really pointy!"

"Yeah, yeah. We'll get there soon. Also, you think you're the only one with pebbles sharper than needles that hurt like fuckin' Legoes in your shoes?" She snarled at him, and then looked down and marched faster.

After the unusually long hill, they saw that it actually was a house. It was a white mansion, with lots and lots of windows and wrought-iron curlicues on everything.

"Hey, that was… unexpected. Should we go in?"

"It can't be worse than this place", Johnny replied darkly.

"Well, are _you_ interested in sleeping here? On the ground? In the silence? Under the never-setting sun?"

"I do not sleep." That was his only answer, and his face showed no emotion.

The girl stepped up to the front door and knocked. No answer. She knocked again, a bit harder this time. No answer. She knocked hard on it, but no one answered. A curse slipped over her lips; she gave the door a good kick with her right boot. Silence.

"Nobody's there", she said. "Wanna trespass a bit?" Gengi smirked and jerked the door knob in a quite violent fashion. To her surprise, the massive door creaked and croaked, and swung ajar.

"I actually didn't expect that to work at all", Johnny noted.

"Get in", was her only reply. And so he did. The hall was actually pretty clean, not at all as dusty as he had expected. There were a few cob webs in the corners, and the stone floor had small fossils in it. There was a big wooden stair, and the walls were covered with some kind of old-fashioned thing, fabric maybe? Velvet or something…

"Nice floor", Johnny said.

"Yeah, it is, actually. I wonder what's after those stairs." She had a mischievous look on her face now, a look that troubled him a bit. They walked up the creaky stairs and Gengi opened the door. It led to an empty room. Oh, wait. It wasn't empty. There were grey blankets on the floor, loads and loads of blankets, but they were all soft, woolly and dust-coloured, so he hadn't noticed them.

"Wow! They're so soft!" Gengi had taken her boots off and was right now jumping in the middle of the blankets. "Dear Jeezus, my feet're gonna thank me for doing that!"

"Okay… And… No. Please, don't. Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's disgusting, and this floor hasn't been cleaned in… well, forever, and it's just disgusting."

"Why do you think that?" She'd stopped jumping now and just looked at him. "It's just feet…"

"No, it's not just feet. It's not right. Nothing of this is right. I don't feel right; you don't look right, and… Man, am I tired." He rubbed his eyes. "Oh no! No, no, NO! This cannot be! Shit!"

"Oh, Johnny, what's wrong?" The girl rushed to him, looking him in the eyes.

"I'm just… tired. That's all. The thing is, I'm never tired. Not like this."

"What do you mean? If there's anything I can do to help you, I'll do it." Genuine worry filled her eyes now.

"Just… Just let me lie down for a while, okay? Do not, under any circumstances, watch me."

The girl just nodded and curled up in the foetal position on the blankets. She closed her eyes and sighed.

Johnny, on the other hand, also lay down on the blankets, but he kept his eyes open. He looked at Gengi, lightly snoring and wiggling her toes. She wasn't wearing her boots, and her black socks had holes in them. He couldn't wrap his head around this, he really couldn't. He was lying on some really soft blankets that weren't really blankets, because none of this was real and it was all inside the head of his house guest. Yeah, that was quite hard to understand, and even harder if you had the pondering, questioning nature Johnny had. Still, what was even more perplexing was that he actually wished to close his eyes and dream. Yes, to dream. To sleep. It was all too strange, and oh, he was so very, very tired, and those blankets sure were soft, and…

Z.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry for taking forever, I'm a lazy bastard. Also, I'd rather like it if you would please review if your eyes haven't shot out of your head after reading this wretched excuse for a fan fic._


	14. Chapter 14

**Hemoglobine –chapter 14**

_(A/N) Words cannot tell how sorry I am for not updating sooner. I was caught up in the tangles and thorns of life; I hope that this sorry excuse for an apology will remove at least some of the resentment and hatred you surely feel for me. To make up for the dreadful wait, I've made this chapter extra long._

_

* * *

_

He woke up before her. His cheeks burned, his hair was a complete fucking mess (there was no mirror in the room, but he supposed it was), and worst of all: he had dreamt. Johnny felt the shame and guilt rise over him like a wave, washing over him, drowning him. Like it always did when he woke up. Remains of the dream still clung to his mind like cobwebs, he tried to brush them off, but he couldn't. He had let the flesh and blood he was made of take control, he had allowed himself to be completely defenceless, and he had invited his enemies in to invade his mind. Yes, that was what they were to him. His dreams. Enemies, horrid things designed to torment him and to make sure he'd wake up, gasping, covered in clammy sweat and with that oh-so-familiar feeling of dread inside his chest. He hated it. But most of all, he hated himself for letting that happen to him.

"What am I to say?" he muttered under his breath, careful not to wake Gengi up. "Shit, shit and utter shit seem to sum everything up pretty well. Nailbunny, where are you? And where am I?"

Gengi groaned a little, mumbled something and then opened her eyes.

"Nice. You awake", she said in a voice that made Tom Waits sound like a cherub.

"Yes, of course I am. I was just waiting for you to wake up", he replied.

She just grunted and sat up. "D'you know what I'd do to get some coffee?"

"No, I guess…"

"I… uh… I don't know, but I really want one."

"Yes, yes, but there is no coffee. Get up; I'm not in the slightest mood for staying in this horrible place…" Johnny scowled, eyeing the room. There were no windows, the walls were made of some unidentifiable material and painted in pale grey, and the dust-coloured blankets covered the entire floor. He didn't like it at all. It seemed like it hid something, like those blankets were infected with anthrax or something, like there lurked something hideous in there. He preferred the forest over this room.

"All right, all right, just lemme lace my boots, 'kay?" she drawled.

Johnny waited until she was done, and then started walking. He put his hands in his pockets and walked very fast, both because he really had to get out of the house and to urge Gengi to start walking.

"That's a pretty grim pace considering that it's only morning", Gengi remarked as she marched up besides him. As they walked out of the house, Johnny noticed that it seemed much smaller than before. The myriad of door he'd seen when they entered it was now gone, and only a few were left. Slight discolorations on the walls still marked where they had been, though. The large gate opened without the slightest creak or squeak, which really worried him. Then, he saw the sky.

"…Wait. Is this sunrise or sundown?" Gengi asked.

"The sun would be in the opposite direction if this was sunrise", Johnny said. "The damn thing hasn't moved an inch."

"If we just walk and walk, maybe we'll get out of here. It's kinda starting to freak me out", the girl said. "At least the wound in my head's healed up", she added, running her fingers over it.

"It's not healed up", Johnny said, "the blood's only dried."

"Oh. Well, it'll soon be healed", Gengi exclaimed in an overly cheery tone, very unlike the normal, monotone zombie-like teenager way she usually spoke.

"We have to get out of here soon, I'm not staying another second at this place", Johnny uttered and started walking like the fate of the world depended on it. Gengi followed, although she marched like the whole universe depended on it. They found the path again, and kept walking towards the never-setting sun.

"What the hell is wrong with this place?" Johnny muttered.

"Stop complaining, we'll be outta here in no time", Gengi rather harshly retorted.

"Yeah, yeah. But still, this… forest is really off and weird, huh?"

"That's an undeniable fact, and your complaints are simply annoying. Undeniable facts are better than annoyance, right? Also, it's my head, not yours."

"What does that have to do with anything? If we were inside my head, I bet you'd complain your head off!" Johnny glared at her.

"Just be quiet and walk, okay?" She sighed and marched even faster, stomping her boots down like the path was covered with cockroaches and she wanted to destroy every single one of them.

"Look", she suddenly cried.

"Look at what?"

"That butterfly." She pointed and it actually was a bright yellow butterfly flying in front of them.

"Phew. I thought this forest was as sterile as… um… something very sterile." Johnny managed to pull the corners of his mouth up a bit. It wasn't a smile, and not a smirk, just a face that might have fooled a very gullible three-year-old.

"I guess this is a sign that we're heading towards something good."

"What on Earth would make you think that?" Johnny spat.

"Well, firstly", she giggled, "we're not on Earth as in the spinning ball of dirt in space. Secondly, the forest was silent until we heard the brook, and that was good, right? So I have this theory that every time we see or hear something different, it'll be something good."

"Of all things people have said, I believe that was one of the ten craziest things."

"Why?" She pouted.

"You dream, right?" Johnny asked, his voice very world-weary. The girl nodded. "Okay. Nightmares? Of course you have. This is your head. I believe your nightmares are products of the very same head. Therefore, nightmares are as likely to show up as ordinary things or day dreams or whatever crap you think of." Johnny flashed a mad grin at her, clearly wanting to get the hell out and drown the events in Nurse Pepper (a type of deelishus soda. Like that thing they gave out when Chinese Democracy was released, ya gettin' me?).

"Oh, look! An anthill!" Her childish squeal was like torture to Johnny's ears. He had a massive head ache probably because of lack of fluid, and girlish squeals certainly didn't help.

"An anthill?" Johnny hissed, grinding his teeth to not indulge in his urge to do something really nasty involving knives to her. "How interesting."

"Okay, okay, I see you're clearly not interested in the scenery of the dream world in which you are currently in. I'll remember to not tell you if, say, you're walking towards a pit filled with red-hot spikes, because that's part of the scenery which you are not interested in." She glowered at him. "Also, I'll just walk away, leaving you utterly disoriented since, if you haven't noticed, _nothing except our mouths makes any sound here._"

"Wow, you're right. One point to the horribly annoying insane girl, zero points for me, the sane person." Johnny rolled his eyes, and immediately felt why he shouldn't have done that. The resulting pain was enough to put him off from moving his eyes in any direction ever again. He noticed, however, a strange clattering sound that he couldn't place.

"What's that sound?" he muttered, more to himself than to her.

Gengi kept walking, and didn't respond, so he followed her. After all, this was her head.

After a couple of minutes, he was forced to move his eyes again. A huge anthill towered before him. It was made of very big… Well, what was it? Some kind of sticks, it looked like, but he wasn't sure. And if it actually was an anthill, where were the ants?

"It's very… big", he said, feeling that the situation required him saying something.

"Indeed it is", the girl replied.

"Do you know what it's made of? And where the hell are the ants if this is an anthill?"

"It looks like oversized pine needles, and…" She grew silent and her expression went from curious to fill with awe. Johnny turned his head to see what she was looking at.

"Oh, Jeezus Christ!" Johnny screeched as he found himself staring into the magnificently magnified eyes of an unusually large ant. "Shit! Shit! How do we kill it?!"

"I was th… Hey! Stop it!" The giant ant had started tugging Gengi's hair.

"Get the hell off her!" Johnny kicked the ant in its fat behind.

"Wait", Gengi called. "Wait! I'm not an enemy! I'm nice! See?!" She gesticulated wildly at the ant that, after quite a while of gesticulating and explaining, dropped her hair and scurried off.

"How did you do that? It ignored these steel-tips…" He made a vague gesture towards the general location of his boots.

"I just tugged his antennae a lot. Feels the same as being yelled at, poked in the eye and attacked with stink bombs at the same time."

"It does? All at the same time? Do you have any idea of why it kept pulling your hair?"

"That sad, sad, stupid ant thought I was an intruder on his mistress' turf, and tried to blind me or something. They do that, you know. First, one of them blinds you by pulling your antennae. Then, the others gang up on you and… well, tear you to pieces."

Johnny just stared at her. She started running around, appearing to be looking for something.

"Yes! I found one!" she said.

"You found what?"

"Get here and I'll show you", was the reply.

Johnny walked up to her, and found her crouching beside the dead body of another giant ant.

"Rub yourself with it", the girl said.

"What?!" Johnny spat. "Why should I do that?"

"They communicate a lot with scents", she said. "If we rub ourselves in with this guy, we'll either smell like an ant or like a corpse, and both of them are better than smelling like intruders. They get really ugly when they fight…"

"Why the hell should we try to smell like them? What's the point?"

"Well, I'm parched, and I believe they've got some kind of water supply inside the hill. If we could sneak in, maybe we'll be able to steal some of their food and stuff. Also, perhaps we could sleep there at night."

"You have really gone insane", he replied darkly.

"C'mon, do you _want_ to get ripped to shreds and then fed to their young?" She started rubbing herself with the dead ant, rubbing her cheeks against the place where its cheek should have been if it had any, and did the same to the rest of it.

Johnny carefully slipped off the glove from his left hand and touched the ant's head. It wasn't as bad as he had thought, more like touching a big piece of plastic. Well, a big piece of plastic with hair.

"I don't think these buggers have poisonous body hair", Gengi said. "Oh, wait; cactuses and some larvae have that. Not ants. The hair's okay."

Johnny took off his other glove and carefully let his other hand slide across the ant's head. Then, he touched his face and hoped that he had managed to catch some of its scent.

"Hmm. Where did they have their glands? Where?" she muttered.

"Pardon?"

"I'm just thinking. If I'm just able to remember where the hell these guys have their scent glands, it's enough if we rub ourselves in with that part. Hmm…" She scratched her head while thinking. "Wait, I remember now. Sadly, they produce most of their scents from their arses. On the good side, it'll definitely work."

"Oh, god. Your head is much, much weirder and grosser than I thought. But at least, it'll help us get outta here …Or I really, _really_ hope it does." A malicious glimmer appeared in his eyes as he uttered the last part.

"Okay, let's start operation Smell Like Ant", Gengi said, and snickered. She started rubbing her face and her hands with the ant, and then proceeded to rub her own body with her hands.

Johnny, very hesitant, did the same.

"Remember, Gengi, ten years of servitude. It's the only reason I'm actually doing this." Johnny said darkly, clearly disgusted by what he was doing.

"Hmm… I've got an idea", Gengi said. She ripped off the antennae from the dead ant's head with a sickening sound, and then picked off the scab from her head wound. "Johnny, don't freak, okay? I'm just going to stick these antennae to your head. It'll probably help us blend in with them. They have quite bad eyes, and they're better at detecting movement than actually seeing stuff. If we have antennae bobbing on our heads, maybe they'll find us less weird."

"Stick them to my head? How?"

"Well", she blushed, "I was thinking about gluing them to your head with my blood. I know, I know, totally disgusting, but I can't think of another way."

"Why do I have to do so many disgusting things? I had no idea your psyche was this sadistic…" Johnny sighed, shaking his head. This had to be one of the worst days in his life.

"Do you feel disgusted by using some of this ant as glue?"

"Why, of course I do. But I suppose it's not as bad as blood. Oh, wait, it is. How about fifteen years of servitude?"

"Fifteen years is too long because of some dead insects. How about twelve years?"

"Yeah, twelve years seems pretty reasonable. Um… What, exactly, do you mean by using the ant as glue?" Johnny cocked his head.

"Uh… This is pretty fucking disgusting, so be prepared. Maybe, we could use some of his… er… There's no way to say this without it being gross, so I'll just say it. We could use his innards for glue."

"Oh god, no!" Johnny felt the blood rush away from his face. "Why not just tie them there with my hair? That's not completely hideous, and… Shit, why do you have to be so disturbing? Innards for glue…" He shuddered at the thought of it.

"Great!" the girl smirked. "Bow your head down, please", she said and tied the antennae into place with his hair. "It looks a bit odd, but it's the best I could do. You make a nice ant!"

"Oh, uh… Thanks, I guess. But keep this in mind: Don't ever suggest anything remotely like using blood as glue, rubbing yourself with a corpse's ass or anything like that again. Just don't."

"I'll look for another dead one", she said, and walked off. Johnny sat down, putting his gloves back on. There was some kind of plain or something outside the huge hill. The ground was dried, cracked mud. The pebbles were ordinary sized. How long would this madness continue? For how long would he be stuck in Gengi's seriously messed up brain? Maybe, he thought glumly, he'd never be able to get out. Maybe he'd be trapped here forever.

"Are they lopsided or anything?" Gengi asked, walking up to him.

"The antennae? No. You make a convincing ant", Johnny said. "Now what? Should we just storm into their base, or what?"

"We'll just wait until some other workers are back, and then we'll walk with them. Or, since time seems to flow differently here than in reality as we know it, we could just step inside."

"Sure, whatever. But do tell me, how do you know so much about ants?"

"I was really interested in ants as a kid", she replied. "I guess I was a pretty messed up kid…"

"Okay, I was just curious. But let's enter, shall we?"

The duo walked up to the towering anthill. Gengi found a hole, and she knocked on the… wall-thing beside it. Johnny thought it was quite the overuse of politeness.

"Hey, we're going to infiltrate their home, steal their food and their living space, and you're _knocking?!"_

"Yeah, why not? Some species of ants do this; I figured it'd be best to be as careful as possible." She shrugged and kept knocking.

Another ant stuck its head out of the "door", wiggled its antennae a bit and then stepped aside to let them scoot past it.

"That was easier than I thought", Johnny commented.

"Yep, now all we have to do is to find out where they keep their food and stuff. I hope you've been eating a lot of carrots, it's going to be darker the further we go."

"I see quite well in darkness, if that's what you're referring to. Sometimes, it is quite hard to decipher what the hell your ramblings mean."

"Oh, I thought kids in every country were taught that eating carrots makes you see better in darkness, but maybe it's a Swedish thing. I guess it's just some bullshit propaganda made up by parents to make their kids eat their veggies, but some myths have a kernel of truth, and maybe this is such a myth. Anyway, good that your eyesight is good. We're gonna need it."

"Okay, enough small talk. What are we going to do?"

"Umm… Let's just wait here until some ant walks in, and we'll follow it."

"Well, it's better than nothing…" Johnny leaned against the wall of the small corridor.

After a while, an ant entered, carrying something still alive and twitching in its jaws (which will be called mandibles, the correct word for them, from now on). The duo followed the ant, walking carefully through the corridor-tunnels, memorizing every twist and turn since it might prove useful later. The ant knocked on a "door", and got let in by another ant.

"Okay, I think this is the food chamber", Gengi whispered.

"Food chamber? It sounds like some part of a slaughterhouse, but it probably is nicer than its name", Johnny whispered back.

Gengi knocked in the same way that the ant before her had knocked, and she got let inside. Johnny did the same.

The food chamber was a dark hall, filled with twitching, almost dead insects. Johnny shuddered. There were ants there, too; feasting on the almost-corpses. The sound of ketene shells cracked open and the sloshing of innards being spilled out filled the room, echoing around the walls.

"This… This is worse than I imagined", Johnny whispered, feeing the bile rising in his throat.

"Ants are carnivores, what'd you expect?" Gengi whispered back. "Um… D'you think we should… Er, I mean… Maybe,we should just…"

"What are you trying to say? Spit it out!"

"M-maybe, we should… use this food supply." Her voice was barely audible, and she sounded like she was crouching, like a child saying things that it knows will bring a beating, now just covering up, waiting for the blow to fall.

"Are you suggesting that…" Johnny suddenly felt a wave of nausea overflow him. "No. Just no. No matter how may years you'll serve me after we are done, I'll never ever do _that._" His voice was as filled with disgust as he was.

"Well, I'm kinda grossed out by it, too, but I'll go snoop around a bit to see if there's any kind of water supply." She walked off, leaving Johnny in the food chamber. He took the chance and quietly and neatly vomited in a corner. The sound of ants eating filled his ears, crunching and splashing and other unsavoury sounds.

"Please, Gengi, make sure I get outta here alive", he murmured to himself. "When I get out, at least I'll never look at ants in the same way again. I must buy some pesticide; can't have things like these living in my home…"

Gengi got back, a smile on her face.

"I found some water! They have this little pool in the room next to this one, where they keep their kids. C'mon, you must be as thirsty as me!"

"Okay, it sounds like it is less insanity-inducing than this place, so I'm on."

"Let's go!" Gengi started walking, Johnny following her. The both of them walked as carefully as possible, desperate not to disturb any of the feeding ants. Firstly, it's impolite to disturb people while they eat. Secondly, it is very unwise to disturb man-sized insects with very strong mandibles and the ability of squirting acid on you while they eat. Thirdly, the two insect impostors were parched. They knocked on the "door" and got let in by an ant that was a bit smaller than the other ones they had seen. The room had some kind of puddle in the middle; parts of the floor were covered by white grubs, some kind of fungus was growing in a corner. The smallish ant that had let them in scuttled around the room, flipping a grub to the other side, feeding another, poking at a third grub, moving two across the room, always tending and pampering them, always busy. It ignored the duo.

"That went almost too easily", Johnny whispered.

"Yeah, I know. You think it's a trap or something? I'm not sure how paranoid and xenophobic these guys are, but if they actually are setting us up, we'll be dead. Did I mention that they have acid they'll squirt on us if we seem suspicious?"

"I knew that they have acid-squirting abilities, everybody with a garden or a corpse-filled basement knows that…"

"Okay, good. Now, if we get caught, what do we do?"

"I'll just kill them", Johnny whispered.

"What?!" Gengi spat, forgetting to keep her voice down. "How are you going to kill them?" she asked, now whispering.

"You'll see, Gengi, you'll see…" A grim expression filled his face while he whispered this, and strange echoes twisted themselves into Gengi's ears.

"Stop doing that, it's creeping me out."

"Doing what?"

"That thing. With your voice. It's really creepy, stop it."

"I'm not doing anything…" Johnny raised one eyebrow at this; was the insane teenager hallucinating already?

"Shh! You hear that? What was it? Oh, hell, they're after us…" Indeed, a rhythmic clacking sound was heard from somewhere far away.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit… We're going to die…" Gengi's voice was almost inaudible now, not even a whisper, and her eyes were huge and mad.

"Don't make any assumptions until you know the entire situation. We're not going to die", Johnny whispered, his voice as calm as ever. "At least not yet…"

The clacking came closer and closer, and the pupa-tending ant rushed to the "door". A tapping sound was heard, and the ant let two other ants in. The other ants gave the smallish ant what looked like a beetle, and it chewed on it as it kept tending the pupas and larvae. The two other ants walked out again.

"That was insanely lucky", Gengi whispered. "I thought they were out to kill me, but they were workers and not soldiers…"

"Yes, yes, lucky indeed. Now let's do what we came here for and drink, I'm completely parched and my throat is made out of sandpaper." Johnny scooped up some water with his hand and drank. It tasted wonderful, and it felt like silk flowing down his throat. The only thing even comparable to this was the water in the brook. After a great deal of drinking, Johnny was satisfied and let Gengi drink.

"Man, oh, man, that was good!" A huge smile cleaved her face. She wiped off some water on her sleeve and beamed at Johnny.

"Yeah, it sure was. Probably the best-tasting water I've ever had the pleasure to drink. How about we get the hell outta here before they notice us?"

"Good idea."

They walked out from the nursery room, tread extremely carefully in the food chamber and snuck around in the twisting, dark maze of corridors that led to the exit.

"Was it left, left, middle door, right, forward, right?"

"Actually, it wasn't. I memorized the entire thing, just follow me and we'll be outside in no time." Johnny felt how one of his antennae was a bit lopsided; the faster they got out, the better. Gengi latched on to his shirt, and he could only barely keep himself from throwing her as far away from him as possible, and also as violently as possible. This was important, he kept telling himself. Screw this up, and you'll be stuck in here forever, with no one to tell you the rules or anything. He started running instead of simply walking very fast, and Gengi did her best, too.

"Are they after us?" he murmured.

"Sorry, what?"

"Are they after us? _Tell me_!" He hissed at her.

"No, they're not, but I think they'll be after that…"

"Good thing we're already running, then!"

Clacking sounds were heard behind them.

"Tell them we come in peace, and do it quick!"

"W-what? We come in peace? But-"

"Do it!"

"Um, if any of you understand this, we're just out and… gathering food. Yes, gathering food, for the queen. See, she needs it real fast, and if we don't she'll be really pissed, and she'll blame everyone. So, you better let us through and ignore us. Please, think of the queen, all hungry and stuff…"

The ants tapped one time each on the floor.

"D'you think that was a yes, a no or just some random ant thing?"

"I have no idea. We'll find out very soon, anyway…"

"Oh shit, oh _shit_, they're coming…"

The clacking was louder now, faster in a deeply worrying way, and then… Shiny, black bodies. Huge eyes, staring into your soul. Twitching, jerking limbs that moves faster than it seems possible with such an erratic way of moving. Ants. Since it was too dark to see how many they actually were and since the human mind is good with imagination even when you really wish it wouldn't, Johnny and Gengi started running like mad. This was what really set the pot boiling. The movement of the two, who clearly weren't ants, made the actual ants ask for backup.

"Shit! Shit! See those big guys? Soldier ants! Run faster!"

"I'm trying, but you're ripping my shirt to shreds!"

"You know the way! Run faster!"

"Jeez, I'm trying!" He glanced behind him, one thing he both should and shouldn't have done. He should have done it because the mere sight of the swarming, black mass behind him sent that much needed jolt of fear down his brain, and he shouldn't have done it because that sight would haunt him forever.

He just ran now, shutting off most of his mind, keeping only the memory of the path. He also kept in mind that the person latching onto his shirt was friendly, and shouldn't be killed for doing such.

The clattering got closer and closer, and he could almost feel them breathing down his neck. Better run faster, murderboy, or you'll die once again. He was out of breath, tasted blood in the mouth and his legs felt like someone had poured ice cold carbonated water into them. He kept running. At last, he saw daylight pouring in from the exit, and light had never been more beautiful. He kept running; close now, closer, closer… And he was outside. But something was wrong. He realized that the green blurs in his field of vision were green and not orange-red, like they should be. And the light was all wrong, too; moonlight instead of a never-setting sun.

"Gengi! Gengi! What do we do?"

"This is all wrong!"

Johnny made a sharp turn, dodging a couple of ants that ran into each other instead.

"Wait, wait! Turn around!"

Johnny obeyed the girl's order without questions, and as he turned around, everything got right again. The trees were orange, the sky was red.

"Run! They'll be after us!"

"Run backwards? Are you mad?!"

"Do it!"

Yet again he obeyed, and started running backwards, backing away from the ants. He ran very fast, not regarding his own safety at all.

Gengi used his shirt as a kind of reins, tugging in different parts of it when he needed to turn. They ran for what seemed like eternity, and the ants lost their interests in them after far too much running. Still, they kept running backwards until they came to the familiar path again.

"I… I think we've… shaken 'em off…" Gengi uttered before lying down on the ground panting.

"Oh god, I'm tired…" Johnny managed to say before collapsing. They lay down on the ground, trying to catch at least some breath and hoping the legs would stop hurting so horribly.

Time passed, and they felt a tiny bit better. Gengi had catched her breath now, and her legs didn't feel so very awful. She sat up, looked around and saw no ants.

"Johnny, I think we made it." She grinned like an idiot, endorphins flowing through her, making everything happy and pretty and good. "We actually made it! We're alive! No ants! Fuck yeah!"

"Hey, I'm actually here. You're here, too. Brilliant, I must say." He closed his eyes and let the sun wash over his face. He sighed. Everything was fine. It actually worked out. Sure, all that running was very tiring, not to mention the sneaking and darkness, but it had actually worked. He sat up. "Do you have any idea of why it was moonlight out there, by the anthill?"

"Oh yeah, that was weird. The trees were green, too. No, I haven't got any idea, but I have got this inkling. You know, they say that you can't cross the same river twice, and I think it applies to this as well. Oh, wait, it doesn't. Anyway, they do say that everything's got two sides, right? Good and evil, light and shadows, living and dead, etcetera. This place seems to follow the same rule, but it only applies to living things. When we got to that house, the trees were still orange when we left. That's 'cuz the house wasn't alive. But with the ants, well, all living things change. So does the environment around them. My theory is that all living things distort their surroundings somewhat, and it's easier to see it here than in the real world."

"That sounds pretty reasonable. Well, I suppose anything you say about this place, even if it makes no sense, is reasonable since it's your own head…" He stretched out, kicking up some dust from the path when doing so.

"Are we on our way, then?" She grinned.

"I guess so", Johnny answered.

And so, they walked on along the path, sometimes nervously listening after snapping twigs and clattering, most of the time just walking. The sun never set, the leaves never fell, pebbles made their way into their shoes; everything was back to normal again.

"Waidaminnit…" Gengi said. "Let me look at your eyes."

"What?"

"Your eyes", the girl said with so much authority he couldn't do anything else than bow his head down and let her look into them.

"Hmm. No, it was just a trick of the light or something, nothing really, good."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Johnny frowned at her. Couldn't she just stop with all this pseudo-prophetical, quasiphilosophical bullshit?

"I… I thought, well, it looked like your eyes weren't… right. Kinda yellow. It looked really weird, but I guess it was just the sun…"

"That's very strange, but I suggest we carry on."

"Sure, I'd like to get the hell outta here!"

And so, they walked on. Johnny kept wondering when his feet would turn into minced meat because of the pebbles. He dared not take off his shoes for fear of what he'd find.

"Right, let's take a break. The pebbles are killing me, or rather my feet. Official shake-'em-out-time." Gengi unlaced her boots and shook the pebbles out, a small pile of small, pointy feet-destroying evil fell out.

Johnny did the same and marvelled at how much gravel there was in even one single boot.

"Okay, my footwear is now empty. Let's go!"

The duo kept walking. They walked and walked and walked. The path stretched on to eternity, the sun kept showering red over them and into their retinas, the trees were all red-leaved, and there were no sounds except the ones they made as they walked.

"Wow! That's really cool!" Gengi exclaimed, and before Johnny had any chance to respond, she ran off.

"Shit", Johnny muttered. "Shit. Where the hell did she go?" He looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. He started running forward, but the path simply stretched on like it always did and nothing cool was to be seen, much less Gengi.

"Just get here, will you? I'm not in the mood for running around in your twisted little dream world", he called, hoping for her to hear it. Silence was all he heard, nothing but silence. Not a teenage girl's voice, not her steps, not even a twig snapping or some leaves rustling or anything. Silence, the kind of strange silence that almost makes your ears hurt. The only sounds was his breathing, the blood rushing through his ears and his heart beating, but even those sounds were quieter than usual. Maybe there was something about this place, something that silenced things, something that did not approve of loud girls and foul-mouthed young men. Oh, wait; he shouldn't get carried away like this. Be rational. Stay calm. You'll find her, sooner or later…

* * *

_(A/N) Wow, this was a blast to write, I loved every second of it. I'm sorry if the ant-thing was too disgusting. Please, review after reading this, even if all you feel is a burning hate for me because I haven't updated in so long._


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